Resonance Effect
by Jknight3135
Summary: My first ever Fic, follow me down the rabit hole into the Mass Effect universe, How will I survive in a world that was not but fiction, can I make it onto Shepards team? Can I survive? Maybe even love? Rated M for violence, swearing, and sexual references. Book one now complete book two in progress.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Here goes Nothing

**A/N: Ok this will be my first ever writing outside of a school related something, but what can I say? I've been inspired. Her Wozzeck, iNf3ctioNZ, and several others, if you haven't already guessed yes this is going to be a self-insert, I'm not quite sure how I want some things to go as far as how close I stick to canon, there will be changes but not sure how drastic yet. Also I ask you to excuse any grammar or spelling mistakes I make, I will do my best but no promises. There will be swearing, and sexual references, maybe more later but that will be the jist of it.**

**Ah yes I don't own any of the Mass Effect characters, plot, etc... They belong to those wonderful people at Bioware. I also don't own any bands, songs, or other games that I may mention.**

**So here goes nothing…**

"_Whew, Friday."_

I had just walked home from school, shrugging off my coat and tossing my backpack onto the bed I sit back in the ancient brown recliner in front of my TV. I grab my controller and boot up my Xbox. I'm wearing my favorite black cargoes, a black T-shirt with a picture of a the galaxy and an arrow pointing to a random spot that says "_You Are Here", _and a black hoodie with an intricate swirling flourishy design. And yes I like the color black but it's not because I'm depressed, black is stealthy, and badass.

"_Hmmm… No one's on? Well now what am I gunna do? _

I typically only play multiplayer games while some of my friends are playing with me, it's just not the same without a buddy. Well there's always one game I can rely on to be fun when no one else is on.

Mass Effect 2

I've only beaten about six times, once on insanity, but it's always fun so I throw it in and boot up. After an hour or so I notice its dark outside, I look out the window to see an overcast grey sky, I kind of just frown at this, I means it's the beginning of December in Michigan, that overcast won't break until June, and it doesn't affect my playing, so I sit back down and think.

"_No one's going to be home till pretty late I wonder-"_

My stomach grumbling interrupts my train of thought right then, and I decide to get some food, but as soon as I stand up a wave of dizziness washes over me, and the edge of my vision goes black. I assume it's merely a head rush from sitting down for so long, but it lasts longer and then I get the sensation of falling backwards through the floor as the world disintegrates into green data around me…

I wake up in what appears to be a small bathroom, like an airplane bathroom, but something seems _off_. As I look around I figure out what it is, everything seems to be more high tech, granted a toilet and sink can only appear so advanced, but my clothes are also different, still got my cargoes, but now I'm wearing a thin gray military jacket over a black shirt with the logo GSWT on it, under that in smaller print it says "Galactic School of Weapons Technology".

"What the fu-"

A beep sounds from my wrist and an Omni tool comes to life around my right hand, and a hologram comes up that looks oddly like the Monitor from Halo.

"Processing complete, subject transfer complete, are there any questions about your transfer?"

I just stare at the hologram for a second before asking. "yeah, Where the hell am I?"

The little monitor bobs once before answering. "You are currently aboard the transport shuttle _Marrion_ bound for Eden Prime."

Saying I had a startled expression on my face was an understatement. "Eden Prime? As in the human colony? From a _VIDEO GAME?"_

"From your point of view yes, although it is no longer a game, you were transferred from your universe to this one, because you possess several qualities required to correct events that will transpire here in the future." The little monitor stated this as if it happened every day.

"I have qualities necessary to fix things here? Like what? What am I as a 17 year old high school student supposed to do in the Mass Effect universe?" I stated with just a tad of panic.

The monitor calmly observes me for a moment before speaking. "You possess and excellent knowledge of battlefield strategies and tactics, as well as being Resonant."

"Resonant? What's that?" I ask curiosity overcoming shock for the moment.

"I cannot tell you, you will discover what it is as time passes."

"_Fan-Tastic…"_ I think to myself, before asking. "What am I supposed to do?"

"You will serve on Eden Prime as a private contractor for the Alliance Military, until you find your path."

"Wait I'm a mercenary? For the Alliance? That can't be right, and what is 'find my path' supposed to mean?" I ask slightly exasperated.

"You have been given knowledge equivalent to a 7 year term at GSWT, the Alliance has hired you to work on weapons and armor in the armory on Eden Prime, you are not Alliance personnel however, so you can make modifications outside of Alliance military arms contracts." It states this rather simply.

I'm slightly dumbfounded by its blunt statement, but quickly reply. "A couple of questions,

1. How do I have 7 years of advanced schooling?

And 2. What do you mean outside of military contracts?

He seems to sigh slightly at this but answers my questions. "You have been given knowledge _Equivalent _to seven years of schooling, as far as the record states you were pulled from high school two years early to begin study at GSWT, where you were for four years. You picked up the knowledge quickly almost a prodigy of sorts, your age has been advanced two years you are now almost 19 instead of 17."

I blanch slightly at that, but he just continues speaking." As you are aware large militaries will make deals with weapons manufacturers for reduced prices, but they can only buy that companies weapons, you however as a private contractor, do not have to abide by these contracts and may deal weapons and customizations from any company. This allows Alliance soldiers to have significantly better weapons at much less cost."

I ponder this for a moment, that makes a lot of sense and it's the sneaky kind of thing that governments would do. "But that still doesn't explain how I got that knowledge I didn't actually _do _any of those things. Did I?"

He seems to be glad I've grasped this and quickly replies." The synapses in your brain were connected on all of the corresponding paths you would need. All you have to do is think about it and your brain will bring up the relevant information."

I'm not gunna ask. I open my mouth to speak again but the hologram flickers out and leaves the message "Good Luck". I just stare at the spot where it was for a second, I look up into the mirror above the sink, just to verify it really is _me_ staring back. Short brown/blond hair, brown eyes, about 5'8"ish and a goatee. Fairly proud of that last bit actually, what 17 year old can claim to grow a full goatee huh? I determine that really is me, and sitting in here is helping with anything so I slowly opening the door of the bathroom. Out in the shuttle I notice there aren't many people here, most of the seats are empty, and the ones that are filled, the people have bored expression or are asleep. I walk over to an empty row and sit down. I look out the window at the blue and green planet below, it reminds me of earth but all the continents are wrong…

I sigh deeply. "_Here goes nothing."_


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Breakdown

**A/N: Well, it appears the recent update to changed the chapter upload system so all the information on it was incorrect, I have since discovered how to update new chapters, YAY! So without further ado chapter 2 away!**

"_What. The. Fuck."_

My curiosity from my conversation earlier is now gone and my psyche is now returning to panic _rapidly_. I am somehow in the Mass Effect universe because I am apparently pretty freakin special, I have some sort of 'Resonance' whatever the hell that means, I am now 18, and have had a fancy weapons tech education shoved into my brain er… sort of.

I have at this point exited the shuttle and am now just standing on the platform freaking the hell out. I am pulled out of this by someone asking me if I'm ok. I blink and look up. It's some colonist woman and she looks moderately concerned.

I quickly stammer out a response, I tell her I'm fine and quickly ask where I can pick up my bags to cover for my behavior. She relaxes a bit and directs me over toward what looks to be a baggage claim of some sort. I nod my thanks and move off towards it, while getting my luggage was not what I had intended it did give me an idea.

I can freak out later in private, for now let's get sorted and find out where I'm staying. As I step up to the machine I realize I have no idea what I'm supposed to do, actually I don't even know if I have any luggage. A VI suddenly springs to life behind the small conveyor, and kindly asks for my identification.

Oh, crap ID where is that? Uhm… think, think… AH! Omni tool Duh. I quickly pull it up, a flick of the wrist is all it takes, how it does that I have no idea but I'm not complaining. I sift through the menus finally finding one that says ID, and present it to the VI. It checks it briefly before the conveyor activates and a duffel bag and, _Holy crap,_ my guitar case. Of all the things that could be there my _guitar_, I can barely even play! I quickly dismiss thoughts on my musical skills, grab my stuff and walk towards the exit, as the VI chirps a 'good day sir' at me. I sling the guitar bag over one shoulder and the duffel over the other, as I'm walking towards the exit I see a bored looking Ashley Williams.

Wow, she was never my favorite character but, fuck, she's there actual flesh and blood. She seems to notice me at this point, and quickly walks up to me. "Hey are you the weapons new weapons tech?"

"Yeah, names Jonathon Knight." I hold my hand out and she shakes it briefly.

"Gunnery Chief, Ashley Williams, I'm supposed to show you to your quarters and give you the info for your job at the armory."

She motions for me to follow as she pulls up her Omni tool, I fall into step with her, and she begins explaining a few of the different building we pass by still looking through her Omni tool. She finds what she was looking for and my Omni tool pings. I bring it up to see I've got a map of the colony with two points highlighted on it one saying, 'quarters' the other 'armory', as well as a data packet giving an overview of my job that I'll read later. We stop in front of a small building; it looks like a slightly larger more permanent shack. It's got an actual foundation, and looks pretty nice actually.

Ash breaks my reverie on my new quarters. "You'll be staying here, since you're not technically Alliance personnel you'll be here instead of the Barracks."

I swear I almost hear her mumble 'lucky bastard' under her breath, but decide to ignore it.

"Any questions?" she asks looking eager to be anywhere but here.

"Uh... no not right now thanks." She takes of as soon as I finish, I guess I can't blame her she probably has better things to do than shuffle me around.

As I walk through the door I look around bed, desk, locker, dresser, a small fridge, and a bathroom. Hmm Spartan but effective. The theme seems to be 'Alliance Navy blue'. I set my stuff down and sit down on the bed, I then continue with my freaking the hell out.

-_20 minutes later_-

"_Ok, calm down, think one thing at a time, what is the next hurdle you have to face?" _I ponder for a moment before deciding work in the morning is the next challenge to face. I bring up my Omni tool (which is some little wristband type thing) and begin examining the data packet Ash gave me. Looks pretty standard arrive at 7:00 leave at 5:00, 10 hour shift, of cleaning, fixing, modifying, and other general maintenance for the colony's weapons. Wait a minute. New next hurdle; learn to do job. I think carefully _"How to strip and clean an Avenger assault rifle?"_ some vague in descript images of pulling parts off of a weapon, some tools, more parts, cleaning something… _Fuck."_ I've been given this knowledge but it's only a vague overview, I going to have to review every part of what I'm going to need. I move to the desk and boot up the terminal, entering 'How to strip and clean an Avenger assault rifle' into the search bar I begin my studies.

Six hours later I glance at the clock, "_Nine o' clock, jeeze I've been at this for a while." _I look back at the bed realizing I haven't even looked through the duffel bag yet. I minimize the extranet window on the terminal and get up. Inside the duffle are several changes of clothes, including one Alliance uniform with all the Alliance patches removed. On the right side of the chest is the nametag 'PC Jonathon Knight'. PC, Private Contractor, that explains the missing insignia. I keep searching and find a credit chit with 2000 credits on it; I briefly wonder how much I'll get paid, before continuing my search. The last thing is a hard black case with GSWT armory emblazoned on it; I open it up and find a beautiful custom pistol. It's made of a smoky black metal that shines dully, and has ice blue flames spreading back from the barrel towards the grip. There's a small OSD inside as well, I quickly open the file with my Omni tool.

'_Congratulations on your graduation from our school, as per every student who graduates from here they are given their own custom built pistol. Each student picks a base model, an M-5 Phalanx in your case, and customizes it, paid for in full by us of course, this is our last gift to you on your way into the world of weapons design._

_Good luck,_

_GSWT Deans Office'_

I pick up the pistol and turn it over in my hand, the weight feels good, the grip holds to my hand, and the sights are exactly what I would want. "_Custom made indeed this barely looks like the Phalanx from the game." _Pulling back the action reveals a fake thermal clip, I pull it out before slotting it back in. There are three live clips in the case and a magnetic belt holster. I carefully put the weapon away in the locker with the Alliance uniform, ok that's enough surprises for one day time for bed. I collapse to the bed, "_What have I gotten myself into? And why me? What's so special about me? I'm not in the best shape not really weak but I have no stamina, I've fired a gun once in my life, not even a paintball match or something." _I think some more staring up at the dark ceiling. "_That monitor thing said I had tactical knowledge, strategy… so does anyone else who's ever played an RTS." _Ugh, I rub my eyes with my hands, _"Well whatever I'm here and as far as I can see there's no going back, that means I need to get onto Shepard's team, find my path right?"_ WAIT JUST A DARN MINUTE THERE! I'm on Eden Prime when are the fucking Geth getting here? I quickly get up and check the date on the terminal, December 4th, 2182. "_Well it's a bit before the Geth are supposed to show up but I don't know exactly when they're supposed to, I'll turn __17__ erm 19 next month. So much for no more surprises today, Crud I guess I have to wait and hope for the best when they do attack… Fuck."_ I eventually drift off to sleep.

A sudden high pitched beeping startles me awake and I roll of the bed face first onto the floor.

"Ow"

I stand up grumbling and rub the sleep from my eyes.

"_Oh yeah, I'm in Mass Effect, that settles that I'm not dreaming, maybe I'm in a coma? Do people in comas think about that?" _I force these thoughts to the back of my mind, first objective: Breakfast.

The little fridge has some food and drinks in it, after a sandwich and something that I assume was milk, I take a shower and put on the Alliance fatigues, I can't help but look the pistol over again as I pull out the fake clip and slot in a real one. The satisfying click of the weapon loading causes me to shiver. "_This thing was made for killing and I'm going to have to use it…" _My dark musings continue for a few more moments before I slowly slot the pistol onto my hip. It's a short walk over to the armory, and when I get there a man in fatigues greets me.

He salutes crisply "you the new tech?"

"Yeah, Jonathon Knight, and you don't need to salute me I'm not Alliance." I show him my work orders from my Omni tool, he checks them over briefly before nodding.

"Alright, looks like your good, head on back Vic's the arms master here, just talk to him."

I nod and walk past through the door he indicated, into what appears to be a large workshop, several workbenches with various tools, and machinery, pieces of weapons, ammunition, and various other weapon related things. An aged but well-built man is assembling a weapon at one of the benches, he has a gruff greying beard and medium toned skin with greying black hair; he looks up when I enter before motioning me over.

"So you're my new help around here?" He's got a deep rocky voice kind of like Hackett's but not quite as epic.

"Yeah, Jonathon Knight." I say this as I shake his hand, he backs up a little and crosses his arms examining me.

"You've got a pretty impressive record, out of high school early, graduate from GSWT in four years, what do you think of that?" He humffs slightly at this giving me an appraising look.

I wither a little bit under that glare, but manage to get out a response. "Uh I don't know, I don't really feel like I've earned all that, honestly I'm a bit overwhelmed by all this." He lets off the gaze and nods slightly at that.

"Well alright then, names Victor Garron, let me show you the ropes, oh, and just call me Vic." He takes me around, showing me where various pieces of machinery are, and thank Christ I studied yesterday or I wouldn't have understood half of what he said. Apparently the primary tool used in weapons modification is an item called , 'the workbench' it's a small device that projects a holographic display over a physical workbench, it automatically scans any weapon placed under it, brings up stats, problems, and stows the design specs into a library. The library is separated into blueprints, for building standard weapons, and the various categories for the primary components of the weapon, barrels, mass accelerators, venting, sights, grips, stocks, bodies, etc… really it feels like a very in depth game customization window, it's easy to use and can send instructions to the various machines to tool parts and such, its connected directly to my Omni tool, which has a weapons scanner, and is contained within a small portable device that looks like a high tech knife handle, with a magnetic base to stick to the table.

A few things clicked as I started working, I guess the knowledge I got isn't total I'll still have to figure it all out but it comes allot faster than starting from scratch, and apparently Vic was the only one working here before I came, the influx of marines due to 'Training exercises' have warranted a second armorer. I head home in the evening a bit more relaxed, the work wasn't hard, tedious maybe but, that all flew out the window when he told me I would be getting paid about 750 credits a week, if I'm careful I should be able to pocket about 400 a week, not bad if I do say so myself.

I get back home and put away my pistol, study weapons for about two hours, eat and, then decide to check out this 'workbench program more carefully. I set it up on the desk and go to the library, weapons categories pop up listing one item in everything but pistols, one Alliance weapon of each type plus my Phalanx. Shockingly the Predator and my Phalanx have no compatible parts, my Phalanx is better in everything but rate of fire and clip size. My Phalanx has a venting upgrade that gives me another 3 shots per clip bringing it up to 9, but the Predator has 12, my Phalanx also has a few upgrades that increase its rate of fire a bit, but the Predator greatly outstrips my Phalanx there, but if I only need 1 shot for every 3 Predator rounds then I'll keep my Phalanx, plus it looks _badass. _I briefly check all the other weapons and it turns out some parts are compatible across weapon types, changing the weapons attributes. I pull up a base model for an Avenger assault rifle and go to work on it, elongated barrel, semi-auto fire rate, bigger mass accelerator, and an ACOG scope. The program runs some simulations and gives the weapon some estimated stats. I save the variant as an Avenger I recon. "_Hmm that's pretty cool, that could be useful, modify weapons to meet various combat encounters."_

I then crawl into bed. Staring up at the ceiling again as I begin to formulate a plan. "_I need to train, hand to hand, assault rifles, pistols, snipers, shotguns, combat maneuvers, and fitness. This is gunna be hard but I've resolved to do this, might as well do it right, I'll ask someone where I can train tomorrow." _I fall asleep feeling a bit better about my situation, I just hope the Geth don't come for a while at least. I've got this weird sense of feeling… like I'm going in the right direction though.

**A/N: Well there you go Thanks for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Well I'm quite pleased with this chapter, just over 4,500 words. This chapter bounces around a bit, I wanted a little bit of pre-story but not a ton, so you get story bits around those several dates, some specific and some non. But this chapter gets all the way up to getting onto the Normandy. **

**So here goes.**

Chapter 3: Getting up to Speed

I asked Vic where I could train and he told me where the gym was and that the marines sometimes have training skirmishes with special skirmish rounds. But the first thing I wanted to do was try out this Phalanx, the firing range was in the armory, which makes sense so I headed over there first.

I got a couple of thermal clips from the range master and stepped up to a lane. I set the target for 20 yards, not too far but this is my first time. I lined up the sights and concentrated. I squeezed the trigger once; the Phalanx gives a solid kick that I feel up through my arms. But my shot was only a bit off, I keep practicing for a while before deciding that's enough for today.

-1 Week Later-

I've been keeping up my practice, running, hand to hand, shooting, and combat maneuvers. I go to bed sore every night, but keep going because it's better to be sore now than dead later. There was one skirmish that I went to, grabbed a sniper to use for it, I "wounded" two guys and "killed" one before getting shot. Not bad if I do say so myself.

Work at the armory is pretty good starting to save up a good chunk of credits that I'm gunna use to build a custom suit of armor. Based it off of medium armor but removed the shoulder pieces, and the stomach plates and replaced them with overlapping plates for better flexibility with only slightly less protection, I kept the chest piece solid, also lightened the forearm pieces a little, but the most expensive part is gunna be getting as good a shield generator as possible. If I'm gunna lighten the armor for mobility, you can be dam sure I'm gunna beef up the shields. Been working on my technical skills as well and now have a minor overload ability, quite happy about that now I need to figure out how to get incinerate.

-December 31-

Well Christmas hit a little close to home, first time away from family, I was really off for a couple of days. Vic understood, I just told him I missed my friends and family and left it at that. He gave me an M-92 Mantis. I freaked out because I had seen how expensive they were, he just brushed me off though said he got it as a gift a while ago but never used it and gave it to me because I'd been borrowing a sniper for the skirmishes. I couldn't tell if he was lying or not, I thanked him profusely anyway. I'll customize it and try it out after the holidays.

Now for New Year's Eve I'm sitting with Vic in the barracks mess hall with a bunch of other marines, he's got a beer and I'm drinking a pop, it tastes like Dr. Pepper but it's some brand I've never heard off not surprising though. Vic and I are talking, about some upgrades I've got planned for that Mantis when Ash plops down at our table, we've talked several times and have become friends of a sort, well more like she's had it out for me ever since I sniped her in the first 5 minutes of a skirmish, no matter how much I tell her it was a lucky shot, now I'm paranoid she's gunna be behind me in every skirmish, and she usually is.

"Hi Ash what's up?" I ask knowing its a little odd for her to come seek me out.

"What's this I hear about you getting a new sniper?" she asks giving me a very sharp look.

I see Vic suddenly start a little at that, he knows what's going on between me and Ash, I mouth 'run away' at him and he quickly exits the table muttering something about restrooms. Ash saw what I did and looks at me confused for a second before realization dawns on her face.

"He gave you that rifle, didn't he?" The marine stares at me expectantly.

"_Oh shit, think options options! Uhm runaway, no she'll tackle me, uh bluff, no she smarter than that, ah crap."_

Just then I hear breaking glass and look to see Vic broke a bottle into the trash and is now mouthing '_RUN!_' at me. I practically lunge away from the table and I'm safely hidden in the crowd of marines before Ash realizes what happened. It's an innocent game we play, I know she won't really do anything that bad, but Vic and I enjoy bugging her.

Vic finds me again a while later carrying two bottles. He walks up to me with a smirk plastered on his face.

"Thanks for the distraction back there." I say with a laugh.

"Yeah, the look on her face was priceless." He chuckles then hands me a bottle.

I look at the label, noticing its root beer.

"I know you wouldn't drink a beer underage or not." The old armory master smirks at me before opening his beer with a hiss.

"You know me too well." I laugh before opening mine.

We wait the last few minutes to midnight talking amicably, and then cheer when the clock hits midnight. It's synced to the clock in Time Square back on Earth, which means were celebrating in the middle of the day due to the time difference. The party goes on for a while longer but I move off and head to the armory, I've got a shiny new rifle to customize.

-2 Weeks Later-

"SUPPRESSING FIRE!" a marine shouts to his squad before opening up over his cover spraying randomly at the enemies' position 200 yards away.

I just smirk before shooting him in the chest, the round impacts with enough force to stagger him but not much else. He sulks off the battlefield dejectedly. I hear someone respond over the comm.

"Stupid new guy." I hear a few agreements; it's become a bit of a thing to keep your head down when I'm in the area. I just smile and reload.

"What's with all these new recruits anyway?" one marine asks over the comm.

"They're supposed to be extra security for the dig site." Another soldier responds.

"Must be something important if they keep bumping up our security here." The first marine replies.

I take a shot at someone hiding behind a fallen tree, the shot hits them in the arm. It's not a kill but they can't use that arm for the rest of the match. I hear a crunch behind me and instinctively roll to my right as a hail of gunfire lights up the area I was just occupying. If Ash is helping me with anything, Its my combat instincts. We've had a dozen encounters like this, with her usually shooting me after a minute of frantic dodging.

I end the roll on my back and pull the pistol off my hip firing a few shots in her general direction. It gives me enough time to scramble behind a boulder.

"I know your back there Jon, come out and face me!" The marine shouts at me

"I'd rather not." I reply sarcastically. I can see my squad in cover about a hundred yard away.

-Ash's POV-

"_I've got him again." _Slowly moving around the boulder, I quickly pop around the last bit and aim… at nothing?

"CATCH ME IF YOU CAN!" I look up to see him sprinting off toward the rest of his squad some of which have turned around to cover him, I raise my rifle.

-Back to me -

"SHIT, SHIT, SHIT!" I mutter as I make a mad dash for the rest of my squad, Ash is firing bursts of assault rifle fire that are coming way to close for comfort. I dive and land behind cover.

"Nice sprint mate." A marine next to me says with a hint of sarcasm.

I just grunt in reply and check my pistol, it's a good thing I've been running allot or I'd still be catching my breath from that, as it stands I'm a bit winded but quickly recover. I notice Ash got taken out by my squad mates, so I get up and start firing at the last few enemies with my pistol, 200 yards is the edge of my marksmanship with a pistol but I don't have enough time to aim the sniper effectively. About 10 minutes later the skirmish is over, and I'm giving all my borrowed armor, along with all the skirmish rounds I have left back to the quarter master. As I turn around Ash is staring me strait in the face.

"whoa!" I back up quickly holding my hands up defensively.

"You… You! AHHHRG!" She's fuming at me, and turns around throwing her arms up in the air. "I almost had you!" She growls turning around again.

I chuckle at her aggravation "Yes, but I'm not the one who shot you." I point out, she calms down a little bit and punches me in the shoulder.

"You're getting better, I'm almost impressed." She grudgingly admits.

"Holy shit, an almost compliment from the Chief!" I say with mock excitement.

"Yeah yeah, settle down you idiot." She chuckles. "You've been here for what almost 2 months now?" She asks looking to me.

"Uhmm, yeah something like that." I respond. "Why?"

"I remember when you first arrived, scared little greenie fresh off the shuttle." She's got a shit eating grin pointed in my direction. "You've pulled yourself together pretty quickly though."

"Thanks Chief, I've been working hard to get where I am." I reply. "Well I'm gunna go shower off see ya later."

"Yeah, your dead meat next time!" She replies pointing a finger at me before walking off.

- January 27-

Today was my birthday. I should have turned 17 years old today, instead I'm 19, and it's strange to think that a year of my life is missing somewhere; it's just gone, just like everything I used to know. I'm sitting in my little room feet up on the desk leaning back, music playing in the background, I close my eyes and lean my head back.

"_Geth could attack any day now, all I ever hear people talking about is the dig site. Am I ready? Can I fight with the best of them and make it out alive?" _ These thoughts race through my mind, then the music changes to 'Indestructible', I smirk one thing hasn't changed, Disturbed is still great. I pull myself from my dark thoughts. _"I can do this, I don't have to take on Saren alone, Shepard and the rest of the team will be there, I'll help save the galaxy, my galaxy, hmm dose that make this my home?"_ I let that thought drift off for another time. Strange that it didn't occur to me the music changed mid-song…

We had a little birthday thing in the armory today, Vic gave me an incinerate mod for my Omni tool, that saves me the time of trying to make one on my own, Ash gave me an Avenger II assault rifle, her position gets her a few perks. I got a few other small things from a couple of the marines, but I didn't make a big deal out of it.

I looked over my new stuff and mentally went over my arsenal, custom M-92 Mantis sniper rifle, custom M-5 Phalanx pistol, soon-to-be custom Avenger II assault rifle, weak homemade overload mod, stock standard incinerate mod, and my armor, which will be complete soon, with weak materials but I can remedy that later. I've picked up some pretty good gear in a pretty short amount of time, it could be better and I still haven't got a shotgun but, It's a hell of a lot more than I came here with. I sink into bed soon after and drift off to sleep.

A few days later…

"Stupid piece of crap, rassa frassa…" I grumble at the pathetic excuse for an Avenger on the table in front of me. "If he doesn't want to buy a new gun maybe he shouldn't have gotten this one run over." I continue to grumble, Vic is just chuckling lightly in the background… ass.

Suddenly a marine comes bursting into the armory." Were under attack!" He pants out in between breaths.

Vic and I immediately get into action. "Well what are you standing there for? Grab a rifle!" Vic shouts at the marine, shoving an avenger into his hands. "What are we under attack by?"

"Uh I don't know they were these white machine things!" the marine is a bit shaken and is panicking a bit.

I grab him by the shoulders and shake him. "Get ahold of yourself man! You're a soldier! So lock-N-load and lets go kick some ass!" I seem to have gotten through to him as he straitens up and cocks his rifle.

I look to Vic. "I'm gunna go grab my gear from my place and head out to help the marines."

"Alright, I'll help any marines who come through here, ammo and guns, if you need more come back here." He talks quickly pulling guns out and loading them then placing them on a table ready-to-use.

The marine and I quickly move out towards my house, I've only got my pistol on me, I need to get my armor on fast. We make good time and I direct anyone I see towards the armory, they can hole up there until help arrives. We get there and I quickly suit up, my newly finished armor shining in the low light. I strap on my other guns and pull out the assault rifle, pulling the action back and flicking off the safety, I then press the radio on the side of the helmet.

"Who needs help and where are you?" I ask over the comm.

"Jon? Is that you?" I hear Ash say over the sound of battle in the background.

"Yeah where are you?"

"Were half a click north of the dig site, hurry!" She breaks off and returns to the battle right after that.

"Ok, come on were gunna go link up with the Chief, just north of the dig site." I start leaving when my radio crackles to life this time it's the garrison commander.

"All troops fall back to the armory and barracks, repeat fall back!" I shut the radio off and continue out the door but the marine grabs my shoulder.

"We have to fall back that was the CO." The marine looks back towards the armory and then back to me.

"Aye, maybe you do but I'm no soldier, go on I'll come back with Ash and her squad." I push off and start moving towards Ash's location at a jog.

I pass a few groups of marines on my way, all falling back, I kill a few Geth but keep moving. I come up to a ledge overlooking a small pass. "_Hmm this looks strangely familiar…" _Right on cue Ash comes sprinting around the corner followed by two drones. She trips then kills them with her pistol, as the other two troopers notice her. I pull out my sniper and take aim.

-Shepard POV-

I open fire on one of the machines with my assault rifle, it goes down quickly with the help from the female marine. Just as I aim at the second its neck explodes at the base nearly shearing its head off. I do a quick scan for hostiles but there are no more here, so I head over to the marine who's looking up at the ridge. A man in some strange black armor slides down with a sniper in his hand, he nods to the marine then takes off his helmet and look over to us.

-Back to me-

I nod to Ash who has a relived expression on her face, then I take off the helmet and face Shepard. Ash salutes him.

"Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams" Shepard nods to her then looks to me.

He's got his helmet on but it is a _him._ "Jonathon Knight, Private Contractor" Kaidan gives me a suspicious look.

"What's a merc doing on Eden Prime?"

"I'm not a merc I worked in the armory, you know not Alliance so I don't have to follow Alliance arms contracts." I reply holding his gaze.

Ash intervenes supporting my statement, the biotic just shrugs and looks to Shepard. He pulls his helmet off and I get my first look at-

"Commander John Shepard" I look at the default Shepard and for some reason think, "_Thank god, I never wouldn't have gotten over it if he didn't look like Shepard."_

"What's the situation?" He asks instantly taking command.

"My entire squads either separated or KIA, Jon what did you see?" Ash looks over to me.

"All the marines I met up with were heading back to the armory, Vic's there handing out guns and ammo." I reply, checking over my sniper and replacing the clip I fired at the Geth.

"Where's the beacon?" Shepard asks getting ready to head off again.

"The dig sites about half a click that way." Ash points back the way she came.

Shepard moves out nodding to me and Ash, the next thing we come up to is the dragon's teeth. As one descends releasing the cybernetic zombie, I line up the scope.

"Are they still alive?" Kaidan asks. I always thought that was kind of a dumb question, but then again what else can you say when confronted with a cybernetic zombie?

One of them charges towards us and Shepard cuts it down, I quickly plug another one in the chest with a sniper round. Ash and Kaidan finish off the other two, and we move on. The next area has a couple of shacks in it Shepard talks to the colonists in the first one and I direct them towards the armory. The second shack has that crazy guy in it, but when the lady says 'Maker' I just mentally shout "_THIS IS NOT DRAGON AGE!" _ But the religiously confusing ladies not important, they head off towards the armory and we move on towards the spaceport.

CRACK

The shot echoes of the hillsides. _"Nhilus…" _just then Soverighn begins taking off, and is quickly gone from the planet. We move on stopping at the ledge above the spaceport. I scout the area through my scope.

"What do you see?" Shepard asks from next to me.

"Six Geth, and three uh zombie things." I reply after a second.

Shepard nods "Start shooting" is his only reply.

CRACK, one Geth falls, a hole in its back. CRACK, a husk rolls down the hill missing an arm, CRACK, another Geth drops his ruined rifle before falling over. CRACK, the last shot glances off the shield of the larger Geth, but I smile as they flicker out a second later. As I start reloading Shepard Kaidan and Ash make quick work of the remaining enemies. As we move down Ash comes up beside me.

"Nice shooting."

"Thanks, they're allot easier to hit than you are." I reply smirking.

Kaidan gives us a weird look. But Ash quickly clarifies.

"We had regular training skirmishes."

Kaidan nods at this understanding, but then notices the turian lying on the ground.

"Commander its Nhilus."

"A turian? You know him?" Ash asks.

"He's a Spectre, He was with us on the Normandy." Kaidan replies.

Just then that guy pops up from behind the crates everyone aims at him.

Ash seems mad that guys alive because he was lazy. I put a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, it's not his fault we've got Geth falling from the sky, point your anger at Saren not some lazy bastard." She loosens up a bit.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." She shrugs and we move on.

A brief firefight later were on the cargo train heading for the beacon.

"So, you two know each other pretty well?" Kaidan asks, Shepard raises an eyebrow in curiosity.

"What's it now two months now?" Ash asks me while reloading her Avenger.

I think for a moment. "A bit longer, I came here in December."

"Are you two uh… involved with each other?" Did he just ask if we were a couple?

I look at Ash who returns my gaze, before we both bust out laughing.

After a moment I regain my composure. "Let's just say, she's not my type, and leave it at that."

"Ditto, were friends but that's not something that would ever happen between us, trust me." Ash says still giggling a little.

Kaidan just shrugs. "You seemed pretty close, I was just curious."

"I got a good laugh out of it so no problems here." I say giving him a friendly smile.

"I'm more curious about your armor I've never seen anything like it." Shepard asks directing his attention towards me.

"I made it, I'm a weapons and armor specialist, plus I have a weird combat preference that doesn't fit standard armor types." I reply with a slight shrug.

"It looks like weird medium armor to me." Says Kaidan, shrugging.

"Well you're partially right, it's based off medium armor but is optimized for mobility and maneuverability, while still able to take some punishment, it's heavily dependent on strong shields to survive heated combat." I say rapping a knuckle on the chest piece.

"So, it allows you to rapidly change positions, but also be a combat factor when you can't bring the sniper to bear?" Shepard asks.

"_Dam he's quick." _I think to myself. "That's exactly it, I want to be able to provide good sniper support but still be able to give it to em' in a standard firefight." I say nodding to Shepard who looks a little pleased for figuring it out.

A few moments later we pull into the station, and there's a huge fucking bomb waiting for us. Ash's eyes widen, but Shepard immediately moves to disarm it.

"Cover me!" He shouts over his shoulder while opening his Omni tool to diffuse the bomb.

I keep my sniper out, judging its long range enough to use it. I aim down the scope and see a Geth duck behind cover. "_Poke your head out you little bastard." _It does, coming up to fire as I sink mass accelerator round into its more lightly armored torso, the high power round ignoring it's pathetic shielding. I pull the action back but a hail of gunfire forces me back into cover. Shepard's finished diffusing the first bomb and moves over to the second, with covering fire from Ash and Kaidan. I come up again and shoot a Geth sniper, near the back of the Geth formation. I duck back down and action the rifle again, as I look around my cover-

"OH, SHIT!" I dive to the side as a hunter bears down on me with a shotgun, I roll again barely avoiding another shot, and ram the sniper up just under its chest plate and pull the trigger. The round goes clear out the top of it's shoulder, trailing synthetic fluid.

"You alright kid?" Kaidan comes over crouching next to me.

"Yeah, I'm fine that was a bit close though." I say a little bit shaken, but I get back up and keep fighting, all the bombs are defused and all the Geth are taken care of a short while later. We move down the platform to the beacon, Kaidan radios to Joker and I check over my weapon before stowing it on my back.

Shepard and Kaidan start talking and I glance over my shoulder to see Ash activate the beacon, before I can react Shepard runs over and grabs her, I come up next to her when she lands. She gets up to help him but Kaidan holds her back. The beacon explodes a second later and Shepard goes fly-

"OOF!" Is all I get out as a fully armored Commander Shepard hits me like a wrecking ball, my head hits the ground and the world fades to black.

"_Ouch" _My body feels a little bit sore. I slowly open my eyes revealing a metal ceiling with a blue light pervading. I slowly sit up swinging my legs off the side of the table. Doctor Chakwas notices and comes over.

"How are you feeling?" The good doctor asks.

"A little sore, but I'll be fine, uh where am I?" I ask feigning Ignorance.

"Ah yes, your aboard the _SSV Normandy_, an Alliance ship." She replies.

I think for a moment. "Is Ash here?" I ask.

"The marine? Yes I believe sh- "The doctor is interrupted by Ash walking into the med bay, back in Alliance fatigues.

"Well looks who's up." Ash says, shit eating grin easily visible.

"Shove it Ash." I say, with a sarcastic tone.

She just laughs and stands next to me. "That was some pretty good fighting back there, I heard you almost ate a shotgun shell though."

"I heard they're full of energy and good vitamins." I say sarcastically, smirking at her.

The doctor cracks a small smile, but turns around when she hears the Commander moving. He groans and sits up holding his head. He looks around swinging his legs around to face us.

"What happened to you?" He asks looking at me with a puzzled face.

"Well when the beacon blew up you went flying and-"

"I thought you broke him for a second there you hit him so hard!" Ash interrupts excitedly, smiling as I facepalm.

"You've both been out cold for several hours." Doctor Chakwas says.

"So I landed on you?" Shepard asks.

"Yeah, it was not very pleasant." I state, shaking my head. "How are you though? That didn't look very pleasant from my end."

The conversation then goes around what Shepard saw, and then Anderson comes in.

"Good, you're both awake. How are they doctor?" He asks looking to Shepard then me.

"Well, Mr. Knight here is fine other than some scrapes and bruises, Shepard appears to be fine physically, but I recorded allot of rapid eye movement, consistent with intense dreaming." Doctor Chakwas states, briefly checking her data pad.

Anderson then asks to talk to Shepard privately, Ash salutes and walks out. I smile and wave over my shoulder on my way out followed by Doctor Chakwas. I follow Ash into the mess hall grabbing something to eat from the Vendetron, as I affectionately call them; they had some on Eden Prime so I'm familiar with how they work. Me and Ash talk while I eat and find out she checked back planet side and found out Vic and a bunch of others were all fine holed up in the armory. I need to call him when I have a second. But then Shepard comes out of the Med-bay with Anderson and informs us were headed to the Citadel.

"_Here we go, we'll pick up everyone but Liara, and start saving people." _I think to myself, Tutorial level completed.

**A/N: And there you go chapter 3, this is my first time writing fight scenes so I would like some feedback on how I did with those, and I'm trying to cut out some of the exposition cut scene stuff, copying the games lines out feels wrong and boring, things are different with me there so the things they say will be different, obviously the important stuff will be there but our hero may be elsewhere or a non-participant in some of these conversations, like with the guy behind the crates. What can I say I'm the kind of person to stay out of a discussion unless I have something important to say.**

**Thanks for reading! Comments and critique are appreciated, the comments so far have been excellent so thanks to all who have faved, alerted, and reviewed!**

**Til' Next time ROCK ON!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Ok Chapter 4 here we come, the Citadel, Jon's first time seeing aliens… well ALIVE aliens, We'll also pick up Garrus, Tali, and Wrex, we'll meet some ignorant asses.. er I mean idiots.. No uhm incompetents? No OH! Politicians yes that's the one. **

**And is has come to my attention that I forgot to mention I am using thermal clips right off, always found that an odd inconsistency between ME 1 and ME 2, sorry bout that. **

**Anywho chapter away!**

Chapter 4: The Citadel… of DOOM and stuff

After talking with Ash I decided to head down to engineering, I wanted to see the Tantalus drive in person. I Stepped onto the elevator and hit the button. It begins slowly creeping down towards engineering. _"Danm it's just as slow as it was in the game."_

I step off the elevator and am greeted by the Mako.

"_Oh that will be fun later…" _I gloomily think to myself walking over to the door to engineering. Thought s of the Mako instantly gone as soon as I see the drive core.

"Wow" I stare at the core for several moments just admiring it.

"Never ceases to amaze does it?" I startle slightly when Engineer Adams suddenly speaks up next to me.

"No, I can't imagine it does my names Jonathon Knight." I say offering my hand, he shakes it.

"Chief engineer Adams, you're the one that the commander landed on right?" I groan and rub my face with my hand.

"Yeah, that's me." I reply gloomily thinking that's what I'll be remembered for.

"Hehe, well the captain said you have free roam of the ship, so stick around if you want just don't get in the way, alright?" He asks rather politely.

"Yeah, no problem." I say walking over to the railing leaning against it and looking to the core as I think.

"_Kaidan thought me and Ash were a couple? I've never been in a relationship before, asked a girl out once but found out she was taken, haven't met another person worth asking yet." _I continue to ponder. "_New Galaxy, new opportunities right? Maybe I'll find someone here, everyone's got someone somewhere, maybe I was just looking in the wrong dimension?" _ I chuckle slightly. "_Were headed to the Citadel now, this will be the first time I see other races… well besides Nhilus but he was dead, so I couldn't really meet him, We'll also be picking up Garrus, Tali, and probably Wrex, Oh god I'm gunna have to meet Udina too, ass."_ I push off the railing heading back out into the cargo bay and decide to call Vic and check in with him.

"Jon? Is that you?" He asks once the call picks up.

"Yeah, I'm on the Normandy, Ash called you right?"

"Yeah, she said you were unconscious because someone landed on you, what's that all about?" The old armory master sounds confused and slightly concerned.

"Oh boy, I'm fine its ah… a long story, in short there was an explosion that sent the commander flying and I was behind him, but anyway I'm not sure what's going on here, but how are you?"

We continue to talk just checking up on each other, and shortly after I finish the call Joker comes on over the PA announcing we'll be pulling in to the Citadel soon, so I head back up and walk into the cockpit. Jokers hears me walk up and glances over his shoulder.

"You the one-"

"Yes I'm the one the Commander landed on." I say just sighing and shaking my head. "_Here we go"_

"Man that sucks! He's got to weigh like 400 pounds!" The pilot says excitedly.

"You calling me fat Joker?" The Commander says walking up with Ash behind him.

"Oh, uh no I mean that armor weighs allot right? That I uh Oh look the Citadel!" I shake my head as Joker quickly contacts the tower.

Ash chuckles and looks out the window. "That ship is huge!"

"You know size isn't everything." Joker replies.

"It certainly sounded like it was important when you were talking to Knight here." Joker stutters before just slinking down in his chair and bringing us into to dock.

Shepard tells us to gear up and head back up to the airlock. I have no complaints, my armor is custom fit, so it's comfortable to wear and I feel better with armor on and weapons ready, being around Shepard is dangerous.

I'm back up in the airlock where Shepard and Anderson are talking. Anderson gives me an appraising look, presumably examining my armor.

Shepard turns to him. "I told you custom made, he's pretty good at what he does from what I've heard and seen, he is also a capable combatant."

Anderson nods with a hand on his chin still examining me. "Were gunna need good people if were gunna take down Saren, how would you feel about serving on the Normandy? Were prepared to offer you the same contract you had on Eden Prime."

Shepard speaks up. "Ashley has already accepted."

"I'd be honored to serve with you, of course I'll join." I say looking to Anderson then Shepard.

"Welcome aboard then, we can get you set up in the cargo hold when we get back." He says shaking my hand.

"_That was easier than expected, and Shepard was vouching for me! I guess something I did impressed him." _Ash and Kaidan join us after a few moments and we go through the airlock out onto the Citadel.

So we headed over to Udina's office and I'm leaning on the railing overlooking the presidium lake. This place is beautiful, no TV screen can do it justice, but then Udina is done talking to the council.

"Did you bring your entire crew?" Really? One more person is the whole crew, not just half?

"Just the ground team from Eden Prime, in case you had any questions." Anderson says gesturing over in our general direction.

"I have the mission reports, I assume they're accurate?" Udina's an ass, I just sort of float thought the conversation, until he addresses me.

"And who's this?" Hey, I'm right here, could've just asked me.

I turn around and fold my arms over my chest. "I'm Jonathon Knight, I worked on Eden Prime."

I swear he almost says 'I wasn't talking to you' but he just turns his gaze on me. "So why are you here instead of there?"

"I helped Shepard fight the Geth and got knocked out, so they brought me onboard the Normandy."

"And I've hired him on as a crew member of the Normandy." Anderson says, with a pointed look at Udina.

"It's not important we need to head up to the council chambers, I'll make sure you have clearance." Asshole.

So, we head over to the presidium tower and get in the elevator, dam these are slow, but when we get out there's Garrus arguing with Pallin.

"Just give me more time, stall them!" Yup, all the same as I remember.

"Stall the council? Your investigations over Garrus." Pallin, walks off and Garrus turns to us.

"Commander Shepard? Garrus Vakarian, I was the C-sec officer investigating Saren." I get my first good look at the Turian, his mandatory blue armor seems flimsier than it's ME2 counterpart.

"Find anything I should know about?" Shepard asks, "_Ha fat chance Shepard, its never that simple."_

"He's a Specter everything he touches is classified, I couldn't find anything solid." "_Well you tried Garrus, you'll help more later."_

"I think the council's ready to see us know." There's Kaidan with his standard line. _"Really it just like playing the game sometimes except its not, I just contradicted myself, moving on."_

Well the council meeting went as expected, I kept my mouth shut and concentrated on giving the Turian councilor evil glares, and now were headed over to Choras Den, to talk to an idiot, I mean Harkin, no I was right the first time.

We walk through the doors where those two assassins are, and well Shepard put one down fast with his pistol and Kaidan pulls one over the ledge before my pistol is all the way up. "_Danm"_

I slowly re-holster my pistol and look up to the big sign of the asari. "_I HATE night clubs." _

We head in and are greeted by a general hubbub of drunken people and strippers, Joy. On our way over to Harkin we hear Wrex and that other krogan arguing, Wrex storms off after a second, and we get the info out of a drunken Harkin. Over to Dr. Michelle's office, I ready myself to grab my gun as soon as we open the door, and there they are. The crooks talking to Dr. Michelle then looks over at us-

BOOM HEADSHOT!

I've got my pistol out a second later and start plugging rounds into one of the thugs while everyone else does the same. _"I'm getting better at this stuff." _We start walking in and I look down at one of the thugs.

"_Holy shit, I just killed that guy, that's the first real living person I've killed, I didn't even hesitate."_ I just stare in morbid fascination for another moment, Shepard reprimands Garrus for the risk I barely register it though. _"What does that say about my personality? I just gunned that man down, no hesitation… now is not the time to think about that FOCUS."_ I bring myself back to the conversation just as Garrus asks to join the team, Shepard agrees and shakes his hand. We move out back to Choras Den. Shepard stops us just as we enter the area though.

"So many of us won't be able to fight effectively in confined quarters, Knight and Ash, look around here, she might be somewhere close by, I'll radio you when we find something." Shepard nods to me and Ash then readies his weapon.

"Gotcha Commander." I say and pull out my pistol, as Shepard, Garrus and Kaidan walk towards the club.

I look around and see the alley where I know Tali is. "Should we split up?" I ask.

"Yeah, I'll look over here, why don't you check that alley back there?" Ash says motioning towards the aforementioned alley.

"Ok, I'll radio if I find anything." I move over towards the alley cautiously as Ash moves off in the other direction. "_If I find something, sure." _

I stick to the wall and move slowly into the alley, and there she is pacing around and wringing her hands. I move out into the light a bit and she sees me, I walk over gun lowered, she pulls her shotgun.

"Who are you? Are you with Fist?" she says glancing around nervously.

"No, I'm with Commander Shepard." She lowers her shotgun a bit. "Fist is working for Saren; we need that evidence to implicate Saren." I say quickly looking around.

"Oh Keelah, Fist's men will be here any second! What should we do?" She asks, eyes widening a little.

I glance around ok shadows, boxes, 3 unsuspecting mooks, _Ambush_. "I'll hide in the shadows when they come distract them, I'll get the jump on em', ok?" I ask, cocking my pistol.

"Ok, thank you I could have been in allot of trouble." She says putting her shotgun on her back so she doesn't look suspicious.

I nod slipping into the shadows and readying my pistol, a minute later I hear footsteps coming down the stairs.

"Who are you? Where's the Shadow Broker?" Tali seems a little more confident than she does in the game, I suppose she has a reason to though.

The Turian walks up to Tali and the two Salarians move to the side right next to me. Tali glances in my direction, and I come out of the shadows. I grab one Salarian around the neck from behind and blow the other ones head off point blank with my pistol, Tali drops her mine and dives for cover, the Turian turns in my direction, slightly stunned and start firing his assault rifle killing his own guy, I fire a few pistol shots at him and Tali finishes him off with a shotgun blast to the back, I drop the meat shield and walk over to her.

"_That's another I've killed" _I think looking back to the Salarian with a hole in his head.

"Whew, your good at fighting." Tali, says shotgun lowered.

"I guess, I'm actually fairly inexperienced, allot more theory than practice." I say reloading my pistol.

"Well they weren't very intelligent either, that probably helped." She looks down at the Turian for a long moment.

"You ever killed someone before?" I ask her placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"N-no… I didn't hesitate either…" She seems to be contemplating.

"That's the second person I've killed." I say taking my hand from her shoulder and looking right into her mask.

"What was the first time like? Killing someone I mean." She asks, almost a whisper.

"He was one of Fist's thugs, we came in on them while they were threatening Dr. Michelle, and I just pulled my pistol and shot the guy four times. It wasn't till after that it really registered what I'd done." I respond slowly, were pretty similar, she and I. First time out of our comfort zone, first time in a real warzone, kill or be killed.

We stand in silence for a few moments before Shepard radios me.

"Ash? Knight? We've got the quarians location she's meeting in an alley nearby." Shepard says, sounds of running coming through the mic.

I bring my hand up to the mic button. "Yeah, I've found her, she's fine." I say as Shepard comes down into the alley weapons ready. Shepard surveys the area quickly.

"You two ok?" he asks, ever the Paragon.

"Yeah, we're ok." I say glancing over to Tali for conformation, she nods to me and I stand up a little straighter and holster my gun.

"Good work, do you have the evidence miss-"

"Tali'Zorah nar Raya, and yes I've got the data you need." She replies, I almost expected her to say 'Vas Normandy', but we're not there yet. "You must be Commander Shepard, correct?"

"Yes, I'm glad you're ok." Definitely Paragon.

"We need to go somewhere safe." The engineer says shifting nervously.

"We should head up to Udina's office he'll want to hear this anyway." Kaidan pipes up helpfully.

As we move off I fall in next to Tali.

"My names Jonathon Knight, but just Jon is fine." I say giving her a friendly smile.

"Thank you again for helping me back there." The machinist, nods briefly.

"No problem, I would have helped information or not." I respond shrugging.

She turns to look at me. "Really?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I?" well I guess I do know why.

"Most people don't like quarians, were thieves and vagrants to most." She responds a hint of venom in her voice.

"I'm not most people, I really could care less what race someone is, they're personality is what defines them as a person." I say honestly.

"You know its nice to see there are still people like you in the galaxy." She says.

"I'll leave racism and bigotry to the politicians, they seem to enjoy it." I say smirking.

She chuckles and we move on. I take this opportunity to really take a look at her, She's in her green and gray ME 1 gear with the metal plates and tubes. It looks allot better in real life, and I always liked the look of this one, seemed more practical than her ME 2 suit.

Well we arrive at the ambassadors' office, and Udina is still an ass. Big surprise there. Now Shepard is going to head over to become a Spectre, he doesn't know that but I do.

"Knight, Can you take Garrus and Tali back to the Normandy? I'll tell Presley to get all of you settled in." Shepard asks.

"Yeah, we'll be ready when you get back." I say moving away and motioning for our new alien crew members to follow.

Garrus comes up beside me.

"So, what do you do?" He asks casually.

"I'm a weapons tech, upgrades, customization, and experimentation." I reply. "I'm also a pretty good shot with a rifle."

"A sniper? Me too, think we could talk customization sometime soon?" He asks looking rather excited.

"Yeah, once I get setup in the cargo bay we can customize anything you got." I look over to Tali. "You too, just tell me what ya want and I'll see what I can do."

Tali just nods and I and Garrus start discussing rifles. When we get to the Normandy Presley shows us to the crew deck, something they didn't mention in the first game. It's comprised of several small rooms with a bunk bed, lockers, and two small desks, in each. Most are empty but I and Garrus decide room together anyway, Tali chooses the unoccupied room next to us.

After that I call Vic and ask him to send me and Ash's stuff over to the Citadel since its still on Eden Prime, he says it should arrive tomorrow sometime. I head down to the cargo bay and setup my workbench and begin checking over all my weapons, Tali is in engineering gushing over the Tantalus drive, and Garrus is admiring the Mako, but wanders over to me after a while.

I'm listening to 'The sound of Madness' by Shinedown, killer song. I'm cleaning my M-92 when he walks up.

"M-92 Mantis, that's a pretty good rifle." He says.

"Yeah, it a nice weapon, what've you got." I ask still checking the barrel.

"I've got a Volkov IX." I let out a long low whistle.

"Nice weapon, may I scan it?" I ask, he nods and hands the rifle over to me. I place it on the table and the workbench scans it automatically, a few compatible parts appear, and I set it to make a few replacements for my own rifle.

"Something you wanted done specifically, better power accuracy, grip customization?" I ask, still shifting through parts, I've kept up on my studies.

"Yeah a few things." We go on for around half an hour fitting parts and going over the rifle before Garrus walks off with his newly upgraded weapon, optimized for power and accuracy.

I start fitting a few new parts onto my sniper, when the Commander comes down.

"So what's the plan boss?" I ask turning to face him.

"Well the council made me a Spectre and we're going after Saren, so were going to Therum to get an Asari archeologist to help figure out what the 'conduit' is."

I nod "Congrats you deserve to be a Spectre, and I'm all setup here so if you want some customizations I can do that."

"Hold that thought I've got access to the Spectre arsenal now so we're getting some new gear tomorrow, we don't have a ton of money to requisition new gear but we'll see tomorrow." The Spectre grins at my apparent anticipation.

"Alright, everyone's settled in, and I sent for a buddy of mine to ship me and Ash's stuff over here, should be here tomorrow." I say leaning against the workbench.

"Ok, but how are you holding up? I noticed that look back at the clinic that was the first time you killed someone right?" Attentive as ever, I nod.

"Yeah, he was scum, threatening innocents I'll be ok, but thanks Shepard." He nods and then walks over to Garrus at the Mako. I decide to go see Tali. As I come into engineering, she glances back and sees me so I walk over.

"Amazing isn't it?" I say looking up to the core.

"It's incredible we don't have anything near this advanced on the fleet!" She's happily looking over readouts and lines of code.

I chuckle a bit. "You're really excited about this aren't you?"

"It comes with being a Quarian, ships are our most valuable resource, I've also had a somewhat gifted education, for a Quarian anyway." She says, voice tinged with sadness.

"Mmm ships aren't my specialty, I like guns and explosions, but I still know a bit about engines." I say.

"It's good to know a bit of everything, but I've never received allot of training with small arms, only marines really get that training." The engineer replies still absorbed in her work.

"Are you holding up ok, you know after what's happened?" I ask sincerely.

"Y-Yeah, I'm ok, he was a threat, and it was the only thing I could do right?" She asks a little nervously.

"Yes, sometimes there's only one way to solve a problem. We don't have to like, but there it is." I reply resolutely.

"But you're a weapons tech, shouldn't you like fighting?" She stops her work to look at me.

"I enjoyed the skirmishes we had on Eden Prime, used special ammo that wouldn't hurt to get shot with. And I won't deny that there's a certain thrill to real combat, but I won't let it master me, I make weapons so that, when we do have to fight we'll have better chances." I reply, standing firm.

"Good." Is her only response, I nod back and walk back to my workstation.

After grabbing something for dinner I head to my new quarters and lay down to sleep, Garrus comes in soon after and does the same. My first night on the Normandy, exhaustion both physical and mental whisk me off to sleep.

Up, in the morning breakfast suit up and meet Shepard in the airlock. I'm the third person there, Shepard and Kaidan are talking as I walk up. I give a nod to both, and lean up against the wall. Everyone else trickles over shortly and we head out, for the C-sec armory.

As we get off Wrex gets Shepard's attention.

"You guys go ahead, start looking at stuff, I'll be there soon." He says turning to Wrex.

When we get down there Kaidan tells the quartermaster that were Shepard's crew and he opens up the stock for us. I look through a few things before something catches my eye.

"What's this?" I ask the quartermaster.

"That's an M-12 assault shotgun, not many people liked them because they weren't very powerful even if they had a high rate of fire, and most people were thrown off by its strange mechanics." He replies.

I look it over and check the stats, High rate of semiautomatic fire, 7 rounds per clip with 4 clips in the feed tube, tightly clustering shots, but generally weaker than other shotguns. And I can see what he means by strange mechanics, it has an action almost behind the pistol grip instead of a pump, and the feed tube is on the top of the weapon, it is also the first shotgun I have seen with a stock.

"_Oh thank the Maker, hey waitaminute." _

"I'll take it." I say looking over the weapon.

"Thank you that's the last one I had to get rid of, and because of that I'll give you a discount, for a total of 3,000 credits." The turian quartermaster says sighing slightly with relief.

"_Sweet, thats quite a bit cheaper than any of the other shotguns worth getting." _ I smile and start looking over composite armor materials and shield generators.

Shepard walks over to me as I'm examining some electronics.

"So what have you found?" He asks.

"A shotgun, some armor material, a shield generator, and some electronics." I reply bringing up the new shotgun.

"I've heard of that shotgun, are you sure you want th-"

"It's only three grand."

"How much does everything else cost?" He asks.

"Everything else is another 1,125 creds, raw materials are pretty cheap." I reply.

So Shepard pays for everything picking up a new assault rifle himself, our newest addition Wrex doesn't pick up anything just waits then we head back to the Normandy.

I'm just upgrading my weapons and armor when Tali walks over.

"Hey uh are you busy?" She asks a little timidly.

"No, you need something?" I ask turning to face her.

"Yeah, could you check over my weapons? I'd like to get more power from my pistol, and"

We go over exactly what she wants and I start making parts.

"That's allot of electronic parts, are you making something?" She asks motioning towards the clutter of parts on the table.

"Yes, I'm trying to make some explosive charges, could come in handy during a mission." I reply.

"Why didn't you just buy charges from the armory?" She asks confused.

"I looked over them and just bought raw materials, as a tech it's cheaper to make them, and I can resupply them between missions instead of buying more from the citadel." I reply bringing forward one that I've finished and show it to her.

"That makes sense but you'll still need to buy more material right?" She asks.

"Not necessarily, we've picked up a bunch of junk from fallen enemies, mods, weapons, armor, ect… that we don't need." I motion to a small container full of random bits of things. "I can salvage materials from this junk and use it to make things, explosives, modifications, and other stuff, I've got a few ideas of things I want to make."

"That's thinking like a Quarian, here I've got some salvage functions on my Omni tool I can give you." She says bringing up her Omni tool.

Her parts finish and I upgrade her weapons, she gives thanks and returns to engineering. Shepard comes down a while later.

"You finished upgrading everyone's stuff?" He asks, coming up beside me.

"Just waiting for a few more parts, all your stuff is done though its in your locker." I say nodding my head toward the lockers.

"Alright, I heard you had something you made ready." He asks curiously. I smirk and grab one of the charges.

"I looked over the blasting charges they had at the armory." I say.

"I really wanted some of those but they were really expensive." Shepard says, frowning.

"I don't understand why, I mean the only rare part is the explosives, the electronics are simple." I say holding up the explosive and turning it over slowly.

"You made one?" He says slightly shocked.

"You kidding me? I made four." I say grinning like an idiot.

"That will come in handy, what did you make them from?" He asks grinning.

"I was able to make them from salvage from all this stuff." I say shaking the container, much emptier now. "As long as we keep finding junk I can keep making stuff." I reply.

"Alright, I was going to sell some of the junk we found, but if we're just going to use the money to buy guns, it's probably more economical to just make them." He says holding his chin and nodding. "Alright, we'll be hitting Therum in two hours ready up."

"_Alright lets kick some ass!"_

**A/N: Alright, next stop Therum. After that will be Feros, Noveria, and then Virmire, There will probably be a chapter in between each mission and I'm thinking I'm gunna do a non-plot mission before Noveria. Just a heads up on the order there, next chapter will probably be next weekend, not sure how the holidays are gunna go but since I'm off school till the middle of January you can probably expect an extra chapter or two, dunno yet though might be too absorbed in Christmas presents.**

**Til' next time, ROCK ON!**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Chapter 5, Therum, lava lots of Geth an armature, collapsing caves, let's see what happens shall we?**

**And Thank you to all, I've gotten lots of faves and alerts, as well as several wonderful comments!**

**MERRY FREAKIN CHRISTMAS! AND HAPPY FESTIVUS!**

Chapter 5: Lava and rocks

"Why would anyone build anything on that godforsaken rock?" Says Kaidan looking at the planet out the window.

"Only half of that planet is rock, the other half is lava." Says Shepard.

"Of course it is." I say.

"Alright in the Mako, let's go people." Shepard ushers us towards the scout vehicle.

He's bringing Tali, Garrus, Ash, and I, Wrex and Kaidan are stuck on the ship, limited space and all that. We pile in Garrus climbing up into the turret Shepard and Ash up in the front, leaving me and Tali in the back, there's surprisingly little room in here.

"Have you ever done one of these drops." Tali asks nervously.

"No, should be fun, jumping out of a space ship in an armored car, why not?" I say sarcastically.

"Jumping out of a spaceship in a tank." Garrus corrects me.

"I refuse to call this a tank, tanks have treads, and really big goddam guns, and more armor, and principally you don't drop tanks out of spaceships." I reply.

"Buckle up we're almost to the drop point." Shepard calls back from the front.

"3…2…1… DROP!" Joker yells over the comm.

Shepard hit the gas and we lurch forward, then we're suddenly hit by a weightless sensation followed by falling, falling, slowing slowing, BUMP. I grunt as we hit the ground and bounce once.

"That wasn't so bad." Says Tali.

"No not really, Jump out of a spaceship in an armored car, check that one of the to do list." I reply sarcastically.

Tali seems confused by this.

"It's a human idiom, the 'to do list' is an imaginary list of crazy things to do before you die." I reply. "I feel like I'm going to be checking off allot more around Shepard."

Well we go a driving along kill a few Geth, and its been a while me and Tali are sitting in the back and its really kind off boring…

"Not much to do back here is there?" I say to Tali.

"No not really, I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing though." She replies.

I chuckle. "Yeah, although I'm sure Garrus is enjoying himself." I reply looking up to the turret.

"Oh, Hell yeah." Garrus replies from the turret.

Me and Tali chuckle. Well we eventually reach the point where the Mako can go no farther.

"Everyone pile out." Shepard puts his finger to the radio on the side of his head. "Joker come and pick up the Mako don't want to leave it behind." He nods presumably to Joker's unheard response through his mic. "On me everyone."

I stretch a bit after hopping out and pull out my sniper; I pull the action back to check the clip before ramming it back into place. I hear Tali cock her pistol behind me, and Shepard, Garrus, and Ash all action there assault rifles.

Lock-N-Load

We move forward scanning the area as we go; I see the area where I know the Geth are waiting and get ready. We round the corner and Geth start opening up on us, everyone quickly piles into cover. Ash Shepard, and Garrus near the front while me and Tali are in the back. I set the bipod down on the rock Tali and I are hiding behind. I scan the upper cliff and the towers.

CRACK!

"Rocket trooper down." I say calmly, and action the rifle.

Tali's firing her pistol beside me with surprising marksmanship, but a pistol is still just a pistol and it's not doing much at this range. I plug another Geth in the chest, and scan for another target, seeing none I stand up and regroup with Shepard. He simply nods and we move on.

"Stupid Bosh'tet pistol." Tali grumbles, angrily reloading her pistol.

"Not enough range?" I ask.

"Yeah, it's fine in short and mid-range but I can't do anything at long range." She sighs exasperatedly, it comes across sounding slightly odd because of her helmets filter.

"I could teach you to use an assault rifle if you wanted." I suggest shrugging.

"Really? You would teach me?" She asks shocked.

"Sure, why wouldn't I? If I can help someone be more effective in combat, that increases the chances of everyone else making it out alive." I reply. "Besides it's a good idea to know how to use a variety of weapons."

"Thank you I would appreciate that." She replies.

We kill a few more Geth but nothing much then we reach the tunnel entrance…

"_Oh, Fuck isn't there an ar-"_

THUDTHUDTHUD!

Several Geth and an armature hit the ground a hundred yards away.

"Oh, SHIT!" I dive into cover as the Geth open fire. We all open fire and quickly take down the troopers but the armature is too tough. I start looking around for some way to get an advantage. I run over to Shepard's position.

"Hey Commander I think it's time we tested out these demo charges." I say.

"You got a plan to get close enough?" He asks reloading his rifle.

"Yeah, I'll climb up that refinery over there and run along the catwalk, I should be able to get close enough to get a charge near it." I reply pointing to the structure made of smokestacks and scaffolding.

He seems to mull it over for a second, ducking as an explosion hits our cover. "Ok, be careful, we'll cover you."

I nod and run off towards the scaffolding. As Shepard orders everyone to open fire. I quickly climb up the scaffolding and roll onto the catwalk, about 15 feet away a Geth trooper is looking out over the battle. He turns and sees me and I have no time to pull a gun.

"LEROOOOOOOOY!" I shout as I charge strait into the Geth bashing him with my shoulder and over the edge of the catwalk.

"_I'm gunna feel that in the morning." _I jog down to the part of the catwalk that goes over the armature and as I start walking onto it the armature turns and fires a shell at me. I dive forward and the shell hits behind me but causes the catwalk to collapse forward. I slide down it trying to get a hold, grabbing the side as I slide off the end, I find myself face to face with the armature.

"Take this you goddam piece of scrap!" I pull a charge from my armor with my free hand and smack it right onto its optic, and then drop falling about seven feet to the ground, I hit and clumsily roll to spare me some of the impact and book it back towards cover. I dive over and activate the detonator via my Omni tool.

BOOOOM!

I glance up over cover to see a headless armature stagger and the collapse.

"_Hehe, Boom Headshot."_

"That is not how I planned it but whatever works I guess." I say standing up and looking over to a bemused Commander.

"You ok?" He asks.

"Yeah I'm fine." I say quickly looking over myself, and patting my chest stomach then sides. "Yup it's all still there."

"Alright, let's move." Shepard walks over towards the tunnel entrance.

Tali comes up next to me. "You're crazy."

"Thanks." I reply smirking.

"You're an odd one, are all humans like this?" She asks.

"Nope, Knight here is _special_." Ash says clapping me on the shoulder.

"Yes yes, I'm perfectly capable of telling Tali that I'm crazy all by myself Ash, Ima big boy." I reply sarcastically rolling my eyes.

"You admit to being crazy?" Tali asks confused.

"Of course! Who wants to be normal? Normal is boring, I like crazy." I reply throwing my arms up in the air for affect.

Tali just giggles and shakes her head. "I wish I knew more people like you."

We're silent again as we get into the bowels of the tunnel. I swap my sniper for my shiny new shotgun and pull the action back and flick on the laser pointer. Two drones suddenly come up over the catwalk and I let loose with the shotgun. The shotgun barks seven times ripping the drones too shreds.

I pull the action and slot another clip in. "I like this thing." I say glancing over the catwalk too where the drones fell.

We ride the elevator down until it dies with a metallic screech. We hop out and see Liara hanging there.

"Doctor T'soni?" Shepard asks.

"Yes, who are you?" She asks.

I turn my attention elsewhere scanning the area. I spot the mining laser and its controls, as well as some Geth that haven't seen us yet. I pull out my sniper and rest it on the railing, I hear a clink next tom me and see that Garrus is doing the same thing. Shepard turns back to us.

"What do you two see?" He asks.

"Several Geth." Garrus replies.

"Take em' down." He replies pulling out his assault rifle.

"I'll get right you get left?" I ask quietly.

"Sounds good." He replies.

CR-CRACK

We both set of explosive canisters killing several Geth, as everyone else opens fire, and… it's pathetic, there all destroyed in a minute.

"Never understood why people leave that kind of hazardous stuff lying around." Garrus says referring to the explosive canisters.

"I'm not complaining, makes our job easier." I reply.

"And more fun." Garrus adds.

I chuckle and nod. As me and Garrus rejoin the group Shepard is fiddling with the lasers controls. After a moment it comes to life and carves a path deeper into the ruins. We move through and shortly come up behind Liara.

"Oh, you got around it! That console over there will release me." Liara says excitedly.

"How do we know she's not working for Saren?" Asks Ash.

"Well, the Geth trying to hill her would be my best hint that she's not." I reply sarcastically, giving Ash a stupid look.

"I'm not my mother! I would never work for Saren!" Liara replies angrily.

Shepard goes over to the console.

"Uuhh… What do I push?" Shepard asks looking utterly lost. I walk over and look at the console too.

"Look for something to deactivate the energy field." Liara replies unhelpfully.

I put my hand over the holographic display and get a sharp shock.

"OW!" I shout pulling my hand back and shaking it, but I see the panel changed and then the energy field cuts out. Shepard gives me a questioning look to which I just shrug. He has a look that says 'whatever crazy shit happens all the time' before rushing over to Liara.

A minute later the ruins start to rumble and we all run over to the elevator, we finally get up to the top, aannnd there's that stupid Krogan, I pull out my shotgun. I just frown as he goes through his stupid rant before attacking us.

I start spraying shotgun shells randomly in their direction as I move to cover. I glance around the corner and the Krogan shooting at Shepard with his shotgun. I pop around the corner and open fire, seven rounds leave the barrel and he turns to me, I pull the action as he starts charging towards me, I duck back behind cover as he runs by, opening fire again with my shotgun this time he has no shields and Ash and Tali start shooting him too. The krogan finally slumps over riddled with holes, I get back behind cover and reload.

"THAT'S ALL OF EM" MOVE!" Shepard yells.

We all start running. "Shit! Shit! SHIT!" Rocks are crumbling all around us, one hits another section of the catwalk and It crumples instantly.

"GO, GO, GO!" Shepard yells.

I take a sharp turn around the corner and start running up the tunnel Tali is in front of me, Shepard and Liara behind, Garrus and Ash up farthest. There's a big shake and Tali stumbles, I grab her under the arm and pull her up.

"Come on no dawdling now!" I say as we run out the end.

The Normandy is waiting nearby Garrus and Ash are already jumping up into the cargo bay, we follow them soon after and I collapse against my workbench, Tali is hunched over next tom me, breathing heavily.

"Whew, We *Huff* made it!" She says still recovering.

"Yeah, escape an exploding volcanic ruin, check." I roll my head back against the cool metal as Tali giggles.

"Thanks for helping me up." She says with a more serious tone.

"Hey no problem, Shepard was behind us he would have gotten you if I hadn't." I reply looking over to her.

"Yeah, I guess I'm just not used to being around people that willingly help me." She replies.

"Everyone in the briefing room in ten." Shepard says moving towards the elevator.

I give him a thumbs up. "Ok boss."

I pull myself to my feet and begin putting my armor and weapons back in my locker, and then head up to the briefing room. They go through the standard spiel and I kind of just block it out in favor of nursing my bruised shoulder. _"I guess it wouldn't wait till morning." _ Liara goes down to see the doctor and I'm about to follow when Shepard stops me.

"Need something boss?" I ask raising an eyebrow.

"What did you do to that Prothean console?" Shepard asks looking me over.

"I have no idea, I was about to touch it then it shocked me, and then it turned off." I reply shrugging.

He seems satisfied that I'm telling the truth and dismisses me, as I walk down towards the med-bay I think to myself "_What did I do to that console?" _ I stop my musings as I step into the med-bay, Garrus and Ash are here as well. Garrus is wrapping his forearm in a bandage, and Ash getting some pain meds from the doctor.

Doctor Chakwas walks over to me and scans me. "You've got a bruised shoulder, and shins as well as a menagerie of other small cuts and bruises." She sighs and motions to a table, I gingerly sit down on it and Ash throws me the bottle of pills. I take a couple Doctor Chakwas hands me a roll of bandages, I've learned that these aren't just ordinary bandages they have medi-gel in them that lasts longer and helps heal injuries faster after battles. I wrap my shins which hurt like a bitch from that fall, and then my shoulder. I say my thanks to the doctor and limp out into the mess, heading over to the 'Vendetron' I press a button for tea, not really my drink but something hot feels right. The beverage the machine produces is a liquid that is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea. I also grab some food and sit down, shortly after Garrus comes over with… something on a plate, as well as a bottle of orange liquid that says '_Tupari sports drink'. _Hmmm must be some Turian drink.

"So how are you feeling after your first mission?" Garrus asks.

"I feel like I just got run over, you?" I reply.

"Bout the same, what are you eating?" He asks.

"I've got a sandwich, some chips, and tea." I reply.

"What is tea? I've heard humans talking about it but never found out what it is."

"Well its hot water with tea leaves in it, the water saps the flavor from the leaves, it's good for your health, natural and all that, I don't usually drink it but felt like having a hot beverage." I reply taking a sip of the liquid.

"Turians have something similar; strange how all these different race have parallels with each other isn't it?" He asks.

And so me and Garrus have a pleasant conversation about the nature of civilization and space, and eventually come to the conclusion that the universe is a very weird place and that it's much simpler to be crazy and just accept it, than to try and figure out why things are the way they are.

"Well that was an odd conversation, I think that's a good thing though, I'm going to go sleep now, see you around." The Turian replies walking off towards the rooms.

"You know what me too." I reply quickly catching up with him, I climb up to the top bunk and Garrus lies down in the bottom.

"_Ok, one mission over and I'm still alive, next will probably be Feros… Yay." _I black out into sweet oblivion soon after that.

**A/N: Whew I can't believe I finished this today; well consider it a Christmas present. **

**Next will be Ferros, Feros? However you spell it, but crew interaction chapter first.**

**Well it's a bit shorter than my chapters have been but I couldn't think of much for this mission hopefully my chapters will get longer as we go.**

**If you've got questions or whatever PM me or leave a review, I'm open to suggestions and WILL reply to any and all reviews.**

**Virtual cookies to anyone who caught the Hitch Hikers reference! :)**

**Thanks for reading and Happy holidays whatever they may be!**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Socially awkward

I blearily open my eyes and sit up, and immediately wish I hadn't, my body hurts all over, but I muddle through it and stumble my way to the showers. The showers are several small floor-to-ceiling cubicles in a room together, not really communal showers, but you could still talk to someone next to you. But I'm the only one in here right now so I throw my clean clothes and a towel onto the hooks in the stall and play some music from my Omni tool, as they are waterproof, and go about my business.

"Bang bang your dead…" I sing a bit under the music's volume, Ozzy Osbourne great music.

I step out of the showers feeling refreshed and head down to the mess hall for some chow. Liara is sitting down just as I come in. I grab some food and sit down across from her.

"Doctor T'soni?" I ask politely.

"Please just call me Liara, and you were on the ground team correct?" She replies.

"Yup, Jonathon Knight, but just call me Jon, How are you feeling?"

"I'm feeling better, being stuck in that stasis field was not the most pleasant experience." She looks down for a second. "I don't know what would have happened if you and Shepard hadn't come and rescued me, Thank you."

"Don't thank me thank Shepard, I was just with him." I respond.

"Oh, but I saw you and Mr. Vakarian was it? I saw you and him firing on the Geth from over by my cell you both seem quite proficient." She states.

"Garrus is a crack shot he's got a lot more experience than I do, but Shepard would have got you out without us, He's a hero like that." I reply smiling.

"So it would seem, but if you don't mind me asking, what do you do aboard the Normandy?" She asks.

"I'm a weapons and armor technical specialist, I build, upgrade, and repair the crew's weapons and armor, if you ever need something you can usually find me down in the cargo bay." I reply.

"Hmm, I'm not much of a fighter but perhaps this is where I'll learn?" She replies shrugging.

"People are naturally drawn to the fight around Shepard, he has that effect on people." I stand up and toss out my garbage. "I'll see ya around Liara it was nice talking to you."

"Yes, same to you."

With that I decide to go talk to Tali, I'm supposed to teach her how to use an assault rifle. I walk through the doors to engineering and Tali turns to face me she seems… sad.

"You ok Tali, you seem unhappy?" I ask, "_This must be the point where she gets homesick." _

"I can't sleep this ship is too… quiet." She replies wringing her hands.

"Hmm most people think quiet is a good thing, but I can't imagine it's ever quiet on the flotilla."

"No quiet on a ship means an air filter has stopped working or an engine has shut down, perhaps this is the true meaning of the pilgrimage." She sighs.

"You don't know what you've got until it's gone." I reply somberly.

"Yes is that a human saying?"

"Yup, if you have trouble sleeping you could try something I used to do, I didn't like the dead quiet at night so I played music just on low volume, maybe that will help?" I reply shrugging.

"Hmmm I would like to try that but I don't have much music on my Omni tool it's not really important on the flotilla anymore."

"Well, all I have is really old human music, but you're welcome to it." I reply bringing up my Omni tool.

"Thank you, I'll have to listen to some, What's human music like?"

"Well I mostly listen to various forms of Rock, which puts allot of emphasis on guitar, drums, and bass guitar, Vocals are still important but they complement the other instruments, rather than being complemented by them." I reply.

"Hmm Quarian music is allot more focused on long notes, not actual words just notes." She replies scanning through a list on her Omni tool.

"It sounds like human opera music, anything that catches your eye?" I ask.

She keys something on her Omni tool and I immediately recognize the opening notes of 'The Pretender' by the Foo Fighters, I just smile.

She lets it play for a while before turning it off. "Now did you need something? I doubt you came down here just to help my insomnia."

"You wound me, I would always assist a damsel in distress!" I reply striking a knightly pose.

She giggles "You really are crazy, aren't you?"

"Aye that is the general consensus, but yes I came down here to see about training you for assault rifles." I reply mimicking a firing pose.

"Oh! Yes where should we go?" She asks closing a few things on her terminal.

"Well the Normandy doesn't have a firing range but I found out that the cargo bay doors can open and put up kinetic barriers so we can fire at holographic targets outside." I reply as we walk over to my workbench, I grab a couple different models and some ammo, as we walk over to the doors they are already open and Ash and Garrus are practicing, I give them a nod and set down my burden. I pick up a standard Avenger handing it to her and grabbing another one.

"Alright, assault rifles are quite different from anything you've used before, they have more focus on accuracy than shotguns while still being able to provide suppressing fire unlike a sniper." I show her how to action and reload the weapon and a good firing stance.

"For long range its best to fire in controlled bursts." I fire a few bursts at targets 400 yards out. "That is well beyond the range of my pistol but I can still score hits with this, now you try."

I step back as she takes aim. She misses the first two targets mostly with bursts to long or to short but gets the last one. "These bursts are difficult to control."

"That, my friend is why some weapons have a burst fire mode." I hand her a vindicator that Shepard picked up somewhere. "This weapon fires a three shot burst each time you pull the trigger, it's more powerful than the Avenger so burst helps keep the gun cool."

She takes aim again, only missing one target this time.

"That's it, I think the Vindicator suits you better." I say.

"Yes, I could never hit targets at that range with my pistol, thank you for teaching me." She says reloading and signaling three more targets.

I grab my guns and do some target practice myself. After a while I put my guns away and decide to introduce myself to Wrex.

I walk up and he grunts and looks down to me. "Do you want something human?"

"Just introducing myself, I'm Jonathon Knight." I say.

"Urdnot Wrex, if you know what's good for you you'll leave me alone." _"Friendly"_

"I'm a weapons and armor technician, if you want upgrades or something just come talk to me."

"Hmph, you humans are soft, always trying to make up for it with weapons and armor, but it makes it easier to fight so maybe I'll come see you eventually."

I just nod and walk off, best not provoke him for now. I walk over to Ash whose cleaning her weapons.

"Hey Chief what's up?" I ask casually strolling over.

"Hey Jon, Can you believe all the aliens we're picking up?" She says turning to face me.

"Yeah, it's pretty cool, Turian, Quarian, Asari, Krogan, never thought I would get to work around all these different species." I say knowing full well she's going to explode at me.

"What! You like having all these aliens onboard?" She asks exasperatedly.

"Yeah, Garrus talks guns with me all the time, Tali is all mysterious and techie, Liara is very refined and pleasant to talk to, Wrex is more like talking to an angry pile of red cinderblocks but maybe he'll come around." I reply.

"I can't believe you, we're letting all these aliens onboard the most advanced ship in the Alliance an-"

"Good, the more we cooperate with other species the better we'll get at fighting with them, and we're gunna need that if these Reapers are as dangerous as they sound, because if they are Humanity is not the only one at risk and we can't fight them alone." I state resolutely, I can't stand blatant Racism.

She sighs. "Yeah maybe but I don't like it."

I just frown and head over to Garrus at the Mako.

"Hey Garrus what's up?"

"Hmm? Oh hey Jon, just doing some calibrations, do you need something?" He says only glancing away from what he's doing.

"_Already calibrating, at least it's not stopping him from talking to me." _

"Just came over to chat, how's the Mako?"

"It took some minor damage in the last battle but it was nothing, although the heat seems to have affected its targeting, hence the recalibrating."

"Mmm, so what do you think of the Normandy so far?"

"Well I feel like I'll finally be able to do something now, C-sec always had rules and regulations holding me back from doing my job."

"There's usually a reason for those rules and regulations, as much as they get in the way, it's usually to make sure innocents don't get hurt."

"Shepard said about the same thing, but don't you want to catch the bad guy? These rules get in the way all the time!"

"Sure I do but sometimes you just have to stop and look at what's happening because of your actions." I say somberly. He seems to think on that for a long moment.

"Yeah, I guess you're right, no point in saving the people if they resent you for it right?"

"That's one way to look at it, alright I'll see you around Garrus."

"Yeah, Oh hey Shepard said were going to Feros next."

"Alright, thanks."

I've talked to just about everybody now I guess I'll go see Joker, so I head up to the CIC and up into the cockpit.

"Hey Joker."

"Hey Knight, what's up?"

"Just going around talking to everyone." I reply leaning against the bulkhead.

"I thought that was Shepard's job?"

"I wasn't aware it was a job."

"What you actually want to talk to everyone?"

"Mostly, I'm not sure how I feel about _talking_ with Wrex, but I like talking to Tali, Garrus, and Liara."

"What you not talking to our human crewmembers?"

"I'm talking to you aren't I, or was I wrong in assuming you are human?" I reply sarcastically.

"Oh, you didn't get the memo? I'm a rare wonder of the universe, only one of my kind left in existence." He replies snidely.

"So you have almost no chance to get laid then?" I remark sarcasm dripping.

"Oh HAHA, everyone picks on the cripple."

"Hey you brought that on yourself!"

We continue to exchange banter for about twenty minutes before I leave him to his ship. I'm walking back down into the mess when I realize I haven't yet had a chat with Kaidan. I look around but he doesn't appear to be in the mess. I just mentally shrug and head back down into the hold. Oh there he is, he's over talking to Ash. I walk over to my workstation and he comes over.

"There you are I was looking for you." He says walking up.

"You were? I've been up in the cockpit talking with Joker, but whatcha need?"

"I was wondering if we had any better pistols, I may mainly use my biotics but I don't want to have to rely on them."

"Actually now that we have plenty of resources I've made some more Phalanx heavy pistols, the machine was tooling about a hundred pieces when I went to go talk with everyone, I've got enough parts for one ready now." I reply checking some things on my workbench.

"How many pistols are you making?"

"When it's done there will be enough parts for four plus yours." I reply assembling his pistol.

"You need a hundred pieces for 5 pistols?"

"No I'm working on a few other things too." I motion to the massive clutter of parts that is my workbench.

I hand him the finished pistol. "I would offer to customize it, but the machines busy right now, check back later."

"Alright thanks kid."

"No problem, it is literally my job."

He laughs and walks away. Several hours later Shepard walks up to me.

"So I hear you've gone and talked to everyone on the ground team."

"Yup." Is my short response.

"Well good you all need to be able to work together." He says nodding. "What are you working on?

"Well I've got heavy pistols for almost everyone, and I'm almost done with a project." I say hefting a piece of unfinished weapon.

"Hmm, good after that fiasco on Therum we could use some more big guns but what is it?"

"How long do we have until Feros?"

"About 8 hours why?"

"It'll be more fun to show you, should be done by then." I reply smirking evilly.

"Alright, well let's see this pistol then."

I hand him a customized Phalanx painted black, white, and red, with a big N7 on the side. I just grin as he takes it.

"You're good at what you do I'll give you that much."

"I try."

"That's why I wanted you on my team, you do good work, and you're willing to keep doing it."

I stop in my work and face him. "Thanks Shepard, really that means something to me."

He holds a hand up. "You're not Alliance just call me John."

"But that's my name!" I reply.

He just gets a 'Derp' face for a second before grabbing the bridge of his nose. "I foresee problems with that in the future."

And true to Murphy's Law Tali comes over. "Jon"

I and Shepard both turn to her. "Yeah?"

Tali stops and looks back and forth, I just facepalm and Shepard shakes his head.

"She's yours Knight, Be ready in eight hours, I'm taking everyone to Feros since we don't have to drop on." Shepard says walking towards the elevator.

"Ok bossman." I reply turning to Tali. "Whatcha need?"

"Why do you call him Bossman?"

"It's just a sort of nickname for whoevers in charge, I'm not Alliance so I don't have to address him as Commander, but calling him boss still acknowledges his rank." I reply.

"You definitely just made that up to sound impressive." Tali replies completely flat voice.

"Danm she's onto me!"

She giggles and shakes her head.

"Anyway what did you need?" I ask leaning against the workbench and facing her.

"Well I'll need to carry more ammo than I usually do now do you think you could help me modify my armor?"

"Sure thing, oh and here." I say handing her a smooth black Phalanx painted with Dark purple designs here and there, and a purple laser.

"Wow, this is beautiful you didn't have to do this for me." She says admiring the weapon.

"Hopefully everyone will have one soon, I only had enough material to make five."

"Ok, but I meant the paintjob, you shouldn't have spent so much time on it."

"Please Tali, I'm an artist, I take pride in my work and my weapons, I wouldn't feel right handing out boring pistols to everyone."

"Thank you" It's a simple statement, but it really hits me. _"Why do I feel so much better when she appreciates something I did rather than someone else?"_

"Yeah, no problem really Tali I enjoy what I do, but let's see about your armor."

So we spend the next 45 minutes or so coming up with ideas and such and eventually make her a dual gunslinger belt type bandolier, which fits several more thermal clips and some other extras. She then stays and helps me finish my project with an hour to spare that is spent tweaking and fine tuning.

"All ground team members report to the airlock in 20 minutes."

I look to Tali and nod, I armor up loading on the new weapon and its ammo, as Tali slides thermal clips into her new dual belts. Then we head up to the airlock where Shepard and Liara are waiting.

"What is that thing Jon?" Liara says pointing to the large object sticking up over my shoulder.

"Hehe you'll see." Tali chuckles slightly as I say that.

Everyone else is up in short order and we head out meeting that random dude on the docks.

"_Hey doesn't this guy get wasted?"_


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Well here we are chapter 7, Feros, some more hints and mysteries, some more development, and a new weapon.**

**Happy New Year; Resolution continue this Fic and see it through, don't know when it will end but I'm going to do ME1, 2, and 3. Hopefully I can continue to learn and grow so I can give a better quality of work.**

**I'm excited to continue this I have ideas for another fic but I'm not going to try and write more than one at a time.**

**I'm sure you're all excited so let's get on with it.**

Chapter 7: What propelled grenade?

BOOOSH!

"Geth! Get in cover!" Shepard yells as the colonist gets smoked by a carnage.

"_Oops, sorry dude" _I duck into cover as more Geth come out, I throw an overload at one and fizzle its shields, Tali takes it down with a few bursts from her rifle. I check the enemy's position noting that they're all in cover fairly close together.

"Hey Shpeard, you wanna see my new weapon?" I yell over the gunfire.

"Sure let's see what it can do." He replies.

I pull the weapon off my back, the tube automatically extends out both ends, I flip up the sight and arm the warhead, I pop up over cover aim at the ground behind the Geth's cover and pull the trigger.

CHUNK SHOOOOOO BOOOM

Little Geth bits go flying through the air in all directions as I stand up resting the smoking rocket launcher on my shoulder. Shepard steps up to me.

"I want one."

"I thought you might."

"What is it?"

"It's basically a tube with a rocket propelled grenade in it, an RPG."

"That could definitely come in handy, how many rockets do you have?"

"I've got four rockets with me, if we pick up some good salvage here I should be able to make a couple launchers, it's actually really simple the rockets are the hard part."

"Does it have a guidance system?"

"It has sights." I reply slightly sarcastic. "But no the rocket will fly straight for about 15 seconds before they run out of fuel."

"Alright any specific type of salvage we should look out for?"

"Anything with explosives in it."

We keep moving towards the colony and I put the RPG away in favor of my shotgun. As I look around this place is really, really unremarkable I'm not sure why anyone would want to live here. We get to the stairwell and I hear the sound of Geth stalkers moving, everyone starts scanning the area.

I look carefully around the stairwell as we move up something flickers in the edge of my vision and I snap to it… nothing.

"I don't like this Shepard, feels like an ambush." I say still scanning.

"I've got that feeling to." Garrus says.

"How can you feel an ambush?" Liara asks.

I and Garrus just glance to each other. "Snipers intuition." He replies.

I suddenly see the laser of the stalkers sniper and yank Liara back as the shot goes off. It goes down in a hail of bullets.

"You ok Liara?" I ask still holding her.

"Yes I'm fine I'll trust your intuition next time." I just chuckle.

The other stalker gets caught by Kaidan, he pulls it off the wall and Tali blasts it with her shotgun. We finally reach the colony and it really doesn't look good, the place is rundown and scars of battle are everywhere. I lower my gun as we walk through the colony to Fai dan. Well that's just as I remember the one lady bitches that we aren't enough and Fai dan tells us of the colonies condition, and then the Geth show up.

Shepard splits us up half going into the entrance directly to our right while me Tali and Garrus go through the other entrance to the tunnel. We fight our way into the center area where the troopship is dropping troops through a hole in the ceiling, Shepard is on the opposite end of the room from us and the Geth are in the middle, it's a killing field. Me, Garrus, and Tali all lay down fire with assault rifles while Shepard's side pulls the enemies out of cover with biotics, we're slaughtering them but, _Danm_ there are allot of the bastards. The troopship eventually flies off, and we meet up with Shepard in the middle of the room.

"Classic pincer move always a good choice." I say as we stop in the middle of the battlefield.

"Think we've got enough scrap?" Shepard says motioning to the strewn parts.

"Yeah, I think so I say bending down and picking up a Geth's arm, I examine it briefly before tossing it over my shoulder. We quickly grab anything useful and head back to Fai Dan.

Shepard talks to him while the rest of us check over our weapons, Shepard walks back over after a minute.

"Alright some of you are coming with me to Exogeni, and some of you are staying here to help the colony, Jon, Tali your engineers so you're both staying to help with repairs." He stops and thinks for a moment. "Ash you stay too, there are still Geth in the tunnels below the colony everyone else your with me."

Shepard walks off and we go get our tasks from the various colonists, water, Varren, Transmitter, power cells. As soon as we get into the tunnels Tali speaks up.

"Something seems… off about the colonists, did anyone else notice?" Wow she caught on about the Thorians influence.

"Yeah, they did seem a little weird." I reply nodding to Tali.

"I think your both off." Ash replies grumpily.

We reach the first water valve.

"Alright Quarian this is your shtick." Ash says waving a hand at the valve.

"Hey what's your problem?" I say a little bit angry.

"I should be off fighting with Shepard, not babysitting you two."

"Well Shepard put you here, if you don't like it and have something to say about it you can take it up with the commander, just keep quiet and let us do our job." I give her one last angry glare before going to help Tali with the valve, but she already has it working.

"Thanks Jon, really I appreciate that." She says referring to me defending her.

"Of course you're my friend, I'm not gunna let someone talk down on any of my friends." I reply giving her a smile.

The next hallway has Geth in it, it stays a long range AR battle, but we get them eventually. Me and Tali walk up to the next valve, the technical part opens but the actual valve gets stuck.

"Bosh'tet, the valve is stuck, we'll have to open the pipe to get at it."

"Hang on let me try something." I say and step up to the pipe, I carefully examine the area where the valve is before standing up and giving it a good solid kick. The valve rattles then clicks open. "Ha concussion mechanics, much easier and usually effective, don't try it without boots on though."

"Well that takes care of that, but do you think it will malfunction if they close it again?" Asks Tali.

"Maybe but by that time the Geth will be gone and they can repair it properly, we need to move right now." I reply.

"Good point we'll have to tell them when we get back."

We move on and arrive at the last valve, the controls on this one are malfunctioning though.

"I don't know what's wrong with it, I'm not familiar with this tech." Tali grumbles.

"Can you fix it?" Ash asks.

"Yeah, it'll take time though." Tali replies, sifting through her Omni tool.

"Let me at it, let's see her- ZAP

"Ow, sunofabitch!" I yell jerking my hand away and waving it around to get the feeling back.

"Jon! Are you ok?" Tali rushes over to my side.

"Yeah, I'm fine it shocked me." I reply still flexing my hand.

"Well whatever you did it fixed it." Ash says from over by the console.

"Isn't that the same thing that happened on Therum?" Tali asks quietly as we move out again.

"Yeah, I guess machines don't like me." I reply, _"That is weird, and cannot be coincidence, those two machines are completely different, what is this?"_

We move on and reach the Varren's lair. We get inside and are immediately swarmed by varren. I keep firing my shotgun, Tali is at my back doing the same. One gets close to me though and my clips empty, it leaps onto me and I hold up the shotgun to stop it from biting me. I struggle with the beast for a second before Tali kicks it off me.

"Concussion mechanics right?" She says, and I can see the smirk in her eyes.

"Only kind that works with Varren." I reply.

We suddenly hear a loud roar, I turn and see a fucking huge Varren stomping outside of its den.

"Oh fuck that." I say pulling out the RPG.

CHUNK

The RPG smacks the Alpha Varren in the face and turns it into a bloody mess. I reload the RPG and stow it on my back.

"That's gross." Tali says pointing at the bloody paste that used to be a Varren.

"Yeah but it's also not attacking us, do you think we could salvage power cells from that grizzly over there?" I reply motioning over towards the burning vehicle.

"Yeah, c'mon help me out."

Tali and I salvage the power cells from the vehicle in short order and hand them to Ash who has a pack for them. We move over to the last objective, the Geth transmitter. When we get there and there are several Geth and Krogan moving ordinance around the area.

"I think we should hit them hard and fast." Ash says.

"The Krogan are a problem, we should lure them into a trap." Tali says scanning the area.

"You got an idea?" I asks from next to her.

"Yeah put some demo charges on the ground in the doorway, when we attack the krogan will charge us then boom." She says.

"Sounds good get grenades ready we still want to hit them hard." I reply moving to set the charges.

A few minutes later. "Ready?" I ask glancing to Ash then Tali, they both nod and I pop around the corner.

"HEY UGLY!" All the enemies in the room look towards me… holding an RPG. "FUCK YOU!" I yell firing the rocket at a particularly large pile of ordinance, Tali and Ash throw their grenades and we fall back into the hallway. Sure enough the Krogan charge at us, Tali sets of the charges and blow the Krogan to pieces. We finish off the few surviving Geth and happily salvage some good stuff from all the ordinance the Geth had here, we blow up the transmitter and start heading back.

"_I wonder when the colonists will go crazy from the Thorian, because I would really like to not walk into that."_

Suddenly Joker comes over the comm.

"Hey! Anybody can you hear me?"

Ash is first to respond. "Joker, this is Ash whats going on?"

"The colonists are banging on the hull trying to get, they've all gone crazy!"

"They can't hurt anything can they?" I ask.

"Not with small arms but I'm creeped out and the ground team is all away."

"I knew the colonists were acting funny!" Tali says.

"Yeah but now what do we do? I can't get ahold of Shepard." Ash says angrily pushing buttons on her comm.

"The Geth must be jamming his transmissions, I think we should just find a place to hunker down until we can contact him again." I say.

"Joker will you be alright without us?" I ask over the comm.

"Yeah, I'll be fine but I'm gonna take off and wait in orbit, I'll be ready to pick you up quick though." The pilot replies.

"Alright, keep trying to make contact with Shepard, Knight out."

"Alright Joker out."

"C'mon let's find a good position."

We wander around for a while before deciding that a blocked passage across one of the bridges is good, we don't have to worry about anyone coming from behind but there's no escape route. But I don't really expect to be attacked down here. I sit down against the wall and pull out my canteen. Tali sits down next to me.

"What do you think happened to the colonists?"

"I don't know, maybe something Exogeni did?" I reply knowing that's partially true.

"Maybe, strange stuff seems drawn to Shepard."

I chuckle, but my Omni tool suddenly lights up and begins playing 'Stranger things have happened' by the Foo Fighters.

"Did you do that?" Tali asks looking at my Omni tool.

"No, seems appropriate though." I start checking over my Omni tool wondering what could cause it to start randomly playing music.

"Technology acts weird around you." Tali says chuckling.

"Whatever I'm just going to let it play." I pause for a second. "Speaking of music have you found anything you like?"

"Yes, quite a bit actually, I like this band Foo Fighters, and what was it Green…day I think?"

"Yeah Green day is good, I like 'Boulevard of broken dreams'."

"Mmm, I get this weird sense of feeling when I listen to some of your music, like… they're singing about me, does that make any sense to you?" She looks over to me.

"Yeah, I get the same feeling, I listen to different music based on what mood I'm in, it always helps make me feel better and inspires me quite often." I reply. "The music of this time seems to have forgotten what music is truly supposed to do."

"What's that?" Tali asks.

"It's supposed to inspire you, makes you want to get up and move, it's supposed to be an emotion, weather to mend a broken heart or heighten two peoples love for one another, it's supposed to _MEAN _something, not just be a sequence of beats." I reply with passion.

"You're really into music aren't you?"

"It's been one of few constants in my life, no matter what has happened I can always listen to my music." I reply. "I miss home."

"Me too, this music may not remind me of my home but it is comforting." She looks over to me. "Are you going to go home after all this?"

I give her a tired smile. "I'm afraid it's not quite that simple."

"Why, can't you just go back to Eden Prime?"

"Eden Prime isn't my home, I don't know that there's anywhere that I would really feel at home." I sigh sadly.

"I suppose that's true of the Quarians as well, I may say the flotilla is my home but it really should be Rannoch and even if we got there it wouldn't feel like home because I would still have to wear the suit."

"I guess that means we'll have to make ourselves a home eh?" I pick my head up and take a swig from my canteen. "Nothings ever gunna feel like home if we don't make it our home."

"Make a home, yeah if I keep thinking somewhere else is my home I'll never feel at home."

I put my canteen away and smile, but a noise catches my attention. "Did you hear that?"

"Yeah sounds like it came from over there." She says pointing across the bridge.

I pull out my sniper and look through the scope. "That can't be good."

Ash comes over. "What is it?"

"Hell if I know but it's definitely not human." I reply still looking through the scope. "Looks like some weird plant, zombie… fuck it I'm just gunna shoot it."

CRACK

The creeper falls over leaking acid.

"Be on watch for more." Ash says trying to contact Shepard again.

Well around 20 minutes go by in which a few creepers wander down here before we finally regain contact with Shepard.

"Ash? Knight? Tali? Can you read me?" Shepard's voice comes over the comm.

"Yeah we're here." I reply. "What's going on? Joker said the colonists we're acting up so we've been hunkered down beneath the colony, and these weird plant things keep wandering down here."

"The colony is built over some ancient plant thing called the Thorian, and it's controlling the colonists." Shepard says over the comm.

One brief discussion about the Thorian later…

"We've got gas grenades and are going to knock out the colonists, you guys are ok down there right?"

"Are you kidding me? These things are easier than target practice." I reply shooting another one and watching it tumble of the causeway.

"Ok, we took care of the Geth well radio when we get all of the colonists."

"Ok boss." I hear Tali chuckle slightly when I say 'boss'.

"These things are going down really easy, I haven't even fired a shot yet." Tali says.

"Well seeing as that they're full of acid, I would rather keep them over there."

"Hehe, good point."

Shepard eventually radios us and tells us it's safeish to come up. There are a few creepers but we take them out easily, because they're scattered. When we get up Shepard and his team are over by the crane controls and the freighter is moved out of the way.

"Everyone ok?" Shepard asks as we come up.

"Yeah, we're fine." Ash replies.

"Alright the Thorian is down there, but I'm not going to take everyone, it's to cramped down there." He stops and thinks for a moment. "Wrex, Ask, Kaidan, and Garrus your with me, everyone else head back to the Normandy."

"Shepard wait." I say coming up next to him.

"I said back to the ship Knight." He says not altogether menacing but forceful.

"Yes, here take this you might need it." I say handing over the RPG and it's two reaming shots. "Try and bring it back in one piece, it took a long time to make."

"Thanks, and I'll do my best but no promises."

"That's the best I could ask for." I say giving him a weary smile before walking back towards the docking bay. "Good Luck."

Back in the Normandy's cargo bay-

I start taking off my armor and stow my weapons. I'll check them over _after_ a shower and some food. I head up to the Showers. While not exactly an intense mission it always feels good to take a nice hot shower. I shuffle the music library on my Omni tool and just let it play.

Afterwards I grab some food, then head down to check over my weapons. I strip and clean all my guns and then start organizing some of the salvage we picked up. Damaged Geth rocket launchers, tungsten ammunition, some armor parts and "_Ooh whats this?" _I pick up what appears to be a Geth shield generator, I scan over it and get a whole lot of blether.

"_Ah Shit, it doesn't match any know data since it's Geth, and is giving me all the equations."_

I try my best but these are Geth equations. I wander over to Tali after uploading the equations onto my Omni tool.

"Hey Tali." I say walking up to the engineer.

"Hmm, oh hey Jon whats up?" She says turning around to face me.

"We picked up some salvage from the Geth and my Workbench can't make any sense of these equations." I reply still fiddling with them on my Omni tool.

"Let me see, I'm more familiar with Geth tech." I send her the data.

"Hmmm, a shield generator correct?"

"Yeah, I can test its strength and its stronger than any medium shields we have, so I could simply stick into medium armor, but if I can get these equations figured out I could make them and use the data to improve heavy and light armor shields."

"I think I can work these out, might take a while though."

"Well I couldn't solve them at all so good." I reply chuckling.

She gives me what I assume is a smile. "Alright I'll send you the data when I decipher it."

"You're the best Tali." I say over my shoulder.

As I walk out into the cargo bay the ground team steps off the elevator.

"Oh hey how'd it go?" I ask.

Garrus tiredly turns and faces me. "No way that was a plant."

I walk up to Shepard. "Everyone alright?"

"Minor cuts scrapes, and a few minor acid burns."

"ouch"

He chuckles dryly the hands me the RPG back. "Still intact." He says smiling. "Dam useful too, I want you to make more of those."

"Can do, I've sorted through most of the salvage we brought back and should be able to make at least two."

"Good, I'm going to go take a long hot shower."

"_Next up Noveria, should be fun I wonder if Shepard will free the Rachni? Well that's for later."_

I turn back to my station and start working on a new RPG.

**A/N: Well there it is, I think one more chapter before break ends is probably safe to assume. I am much happier with the length of this chapter.**

**Happy New Year and ROCK ON!**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Well this took forever to finish because of finals and general school related garbage… but! I finally got around to uploading some art work to deviant art if you're interested just head to my profile and hit the link. Thanks everyone!**

**This will be an interaction chapter but it takes place while Shepard does side missions.**

**So I wrote a couple surprises in here that I had not planned to so there ya go, I'm crazy so sue me…**

**Follow me to VIC-TO-RY!**

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 8: Sidequesting<span>

I open my eyes and roll out of the bunk neatly landing from the drop, Garrus is already out, scratch that He's probably sleeping in the Mako. I mentally shrug and grab some clean clothes and a towel.

After a nice shower I sit down for breakfast, Liara and Kaidan are eating as well and we chat until I finish. I head down to cargo and continue working on the new RPGs. About two hours later Shepard calls Wrex Ash and Kaidan up to the airlock for a mission, I don't know what some sidequest or Alliance mission.

Well the machine will be busy for around two hours making parts so I decide to grab my guitar, I'm just sitting on the floor back against the workbench practicing when Tali walks up. She comes over and I motion for her to sit down, She does staring at my guitar.

"What is that?" She asks.

"It's a guitar." I reply.

"It sounds like the music you gave me so I thought it might be, I didn't know you played."

"A bit I'm not that good though."

"May I see it?"

"Sure but I don't think you'll have much luck if you want to play it."

"Why? Don't think I can handle you're earth instruments?"

"No I know you're perfectly capable of doing whatever you set your mind to, but you don't have enough fingers." I reply wiggling my left hand.

I can tell she just has this 'Derp' look. "Oh… uh." She sits for a moment. "Stupid Bosh'tet" She says placing a hand on her mask.

I put an arm around her shoulder and shake her gently. "Hey there's no way you could have known that and it's not your fault you're species only has three fingers, and playing string instruments is one of few things I can think of that you must have five fingers to play."

She just sighs and leans her head back. "Thanks Jon, but anyway I came over here because I figured out those Geth equations." She pulls up her Omni tool and mine buzzes soon after.

"Thanks Tali I can't do anything right now the machines busy."

"Adams doesn't really need me in engineering right now, and we've shared just about all the engine tricks we have." We just sit there for a few moments.

"Well do you want to play some games?" I ask.

"Like what? Children's games?" She asks slightly unbelieving.

"What? No like video games." I reply.

"Oh, I've never played a video game before, we never had the time or resources to play video games."

"You poor deprived child, come on you're playing some video games right now."

I pull her to her feet with me and lead her up to the crew quarters, as we enter my room I grab the chair from Garrus's desk and pull it over towards mine.

"Have a seat." I say sitting down in my own and booting up my terminal. "I haven't had time to look around at any consoles really but I've got some good computer games."

Tali just sits down and pulls closer to the terminal. I scroll through a few games before deciding to play Armored Warfare. As it boots up I begin to explain the game.

"I love this one, it's a multiplayer game so you play against other people, there are two teams of fifteen players each person controls they're own vehicle, light tank, heavy tank, medium tank, tank destroyer, or self-propelled gun."

"What's the difference between vehicles?"

I continue to explain the game to her, it's remarkably similar to 'World of Tanks' from back in my own universe except it's really high tech vehicles and different planets are battlefields. I play a few rounds and let her try, and she surprisingly catches on pretty quickly she's using my vehicles though not the starter vehicles. We play for a while and Tali sets up her own account, sometime later the PA announces Shepard's return.

"How long have we been doing this?" Tali asks briefly looking up from her match.

I check the time. "Uh just under four hours."

"Keelah, we've been at this a long time." Her match finishes up. "We should probably get back to work."

"Yeah it's a good thing neither of us are Alliance personnel or we would be in trouble." I reply and we both chuckle.

As we leave my room Garrus comes over looking slightly sleepy he stops and starts a bit when he sees me and Tali.

"Garrus? You ok?" I ask.

"What were you two doing in there?" He asks in a way that implies a certain activity.

"What- we… eh what do you" Me and Tali both just stutter at him for a few seconds and I can feel my face heat up.

"Whoa easy, I don't care if you two are uh _sparring _or whatever just don't do it on my bunk." He walks past us down the hall to the showers.

I just stand there dumb struck by that statement.

"Did he just… does he think we… uh." Tali wrings her hands next to me.

I shake my head. "I'll straighten him out later, uh come on let's get down to cargo."

We both walk into the elevator when it opens again Shepard is over talking to Ash. I nod goodbye to Tali as she heads back into engineering. I step up to my workbench and start checking over all the parts it's finished, luckily I can send commands via my Omni tool so I sent another list of parts for it to make so I wasn't slacking as much. Shepard walks up to me a few minutes later.

"Ash said you and Tali went off for few hours, are you two working on something?" He asks.

"Uh no, the machine was tooling parts and Tali wasn't needed in engineering so I uh introduced her to videogames." I reply nervously shuffling my feet.

He processes that for a minute. "You two make a cute couple."

DERP

I stand there just staring at him dumbstruck for a second. "Wh-what?"

"Yeah, two new young people embarking on an epic journey for the first time, and of course your both techies." He says rather matter-of-factly.

"Think about it, Tali was willing to spend what? Four hours with you instead of her engines, how many other people would she be willing to do that with?"

"Uh, erm you?"

"Only if I needed her for something, you two were just playing games, she values free time and she just spent allot with you."

I just stand there processing this for a few moments. _ "Everything he said is true, we do spend allot of time together…"_

Shepard chuckles. "Just don't get too distracted, Tali isn't part of engineering so she can do whatever, but I need you making guns alright?"

I nod. "Of course Shepard." I reply and he walks into engineering.

I get back to work for about twenty minutes before Tali stiffly walks over and sits down against my workbench.

"Uh… Need something?" I ask.

"You know Shepard came into engineering and told Adams that he shouldn't be too worried if I went off to spend time with you." She's sitting there with her arms crossed. "And then he came over and said he didn't want me getting sick from any 'Accidents' that might happen around you."

I feel my face instantly heat up. "Yeah, he told me not to get distracted with you."

She groans and holds her head in her hands. "I think this is some kind of cruel prank that everyone's pulling on us."

"I wouldn't put it past some of them." I reply glancing over to Garrus's work station.

She just quietly sits there while I work for about an hour before her Omni tool beeps. "I'M GOING TO GO AND SHOVE-" I can't understand the rest of what she says as it turns into angry sounding Khellish, but I do hear a profuse amount of Bosh'tets. She storms off towards the elevator still grumbling in Khellish, I just blink. I shake my head and get back to work, about half an hour later she comes back and sits down again.

"What happened?"

"He sent me a message that said 'no accidents', stupid Bosh'tet."

"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." I quote. "uh what did you do to him?"

"I hacked his Omni tool and subscribed him to about twenty different sites that will spam him with ads."

"You're evil and brilliant." I reply chuckling.

I keep working for a while longer before I get a message from Shepard.

'I just had to poke fun at the techie didn't I?'

'That's queen techie.' I reply.

'Right, now I'm paying for it.'

I just chuckle and keep working.

* * *

><p>-A couple days later-<p>

I finished one RPG and gave it to Shepard still working on the second one, I came up with an idea for my next project too. Life aboard the Normandy is… different, it's strange to be in such a confined space for an extended period of time, but it forces people to get along to some degree, Ash is more comfortable around our non-humans now, Garrus seems to have been calmed somewhat by Shepard, Wrex isn't perpetually angry just easily angered, Liara and Kaidan are amicable to everyone, and me? Well I'm getting there. I spend most of my time in cargo working, Tali comes over and sits on a stool next to me and chats or learns to make guns from me, sometimes though she just sits and watches me while I dismantle and rebuild my guns. Me and Tali are close but I don't know how far that goes, we spend allot of time together she teaches me about engines I teach her about guns, we play videogames together when we can, I'm not sure what to do about Tali, no one really pokes at us anymore Shepard ended that pretty quick, and there's always the fact I'm not from here I want to tell her but I don't know how and I don't want her to hate me for it, it's during a time of such brooding that the PA interrupts my thoughts.

"Tali, Knight, Wrex, and Ash up to the briefing room get your gear on."

I perk up at this it's been almost a week since I've been on a mission, lots of minor stuff he usually takes Wrex and Ash for. I grab my gear and get in the elevator with Tali.

"What do you think Shepard wants us on this mission for?" She asks me.

"Dunno must be some tech stuff Geth maybe?"

She just shrugs. "I guess we'll find out."

We get up to the briefing room and Shepard tells us that we're taking out some Geth outposts, there are three small compounds on this planet and me and Tali are scouting the last one then waiting for Shepard to attack.

"So we're going to sit on a hill and watch them until you give us the ok?" I ask.

"Basically, when we get close I want you to give us details on its defenses, we can't scan it from orbit like the other two due to the forest it's in." Shepard replies.

"Wouldn't Garrus be better at this? I'm no sniper." Tali asks.

"Maybe, but you work well with Knight and your sensors are what we need you can give me technical specs while Knight can give me tactical specs." Shepard replies.

Tali nods understanding and we move out. We drop in the Mako but Me and Tali have to huff it about three miles to get near the base while the rest of the team goes for the other two. It doesn't take that long before me and Tali are laying prone on a hilltop about 1000 yards away from the Geth outpost. I'm looking through my scope examining the defenses while Tali is using zoom optics in her helmet.

"Ok Shepard we're in position." I say over the comm.

"We're most of the way through the first base it'll be a while." He replies.

"Ah shit we're gunna be stuck here for a while." I say to Tali.

"Hmph, at least we're not in danger of being detected, they seem to be readying for Shepard not looking for us."

"Yeah, there is that."

There's a few moments of silence before Tali speaks up. "Are you ok Jon? You've seemed kind of… off lately." She says quietly concerned.

I let out a hollow laugh. "You know me too well, even so I don't think you would understand what I'm going through." I say firmly but not unfriendly.

Of course this is Tali I'm talking to. "I can try Jon, I don't like seeing you like this."

"_Should I tell her? Is that safe or will the universe implode or something?... No if it was going to implode it would have done so just by me being here, but still __**should**_ _I tell her? If she freaks out she might tell Shepard and he'd kick me out then what would I do? _My thoughts continue to race, Tali seems to realize this and puts a hand on my shoulder and looks right at me.

"Jon you can tell me anything, if you don't want me to tell anyone else I won't, you can trust me."

"Heh when did you become Shepard? I know I can trust you Tali but what going on with me is _insane, _It's not some mundane problem like I miss my xbox it shouldn't even be possible… and I don't want you to think I'm crazy you're to goddam important to me."

"Crazy Jon? We're helping to take down a race of sentient starships who come and wipe out all life in the galaxy after a couple thousand years."

"Heh I know Tali but really I don't know that anyone would believe me."

"Try me."

I let out a long sigh. _"Fuck it here goes nothing." _

"After time adrift among open stars, along tides of light and through shoals of dust, I will return to where I began." I say in a flat voice.

"How.. do you? Where did you hear that?"

"You say it in a game."

"What I'm not in a game what are you talking about?"

"I'm from another universe or dimension or something but it's 170 years in the past and all this…" I motion to everything around me. "Is a videogame called _Mass Effect._"

"An-other dimension… a game? But how… how is that possible?"

"Hell if I know I woke up in the bathroom of a shuttle bound for Eden Prime with some little hologram telling me I've just been transported here because I'm freakin special."

"I don't know how else you would know the about the passphrase but I is there more you can prove? I trust you Jon but…"

"I understand Tali personally I'm just happy you're trying to understand." I think for a second. "The most intimate things two Quarians can do is link suit environments, you get sick at first and then adapt."

"That's true and I never told you that… What about Saren and all this what do you know about that?"

"Well our next major mission is Noveria, Benezia is there with Geth and they've revived some ancient Rachni eggs and they've overrun peak 15."

"Keelah, Rachni? That's crazy!"

"I'm more concerned about Virmire though…"

"Why what happens there?" She asks tentatively.

"Kaidan or Ashley is supposed to die."

"We have to do something were you planning on telling anyone about this?"

"I want to tell Shepard before Virmire, I'm not going to sit by and let someone die."

She lets out a sigh. "I knew you wouldn't… how far ahead do you know what's happening?"

"Well for Saren we've got Noveria, Virmire, Ilos, and the battle of the Citadel." She gasps when I say that. "Then Shepard uh 'Dies' and nothing happens for two years and-"

"Wait wait wait Shepard Dies?" she asks incredulously.

"Kind of? The Normandy is destroyed and Shepard is killed and Cerberus spends two years rebuilding him."

"The Normandy is destroyed? What happens to everyone? Cerberus? I- I don't know where to start."

"Just stop and clear your head we can talk back on the Normandy, ok?"

"Yeah but one question."

"Yes"

"Do you know what I look like under the suit?"

"Heh, no Bioware is evil so no I don't."

"Ok"

The rest of the mission goes by in silence, we get back to the Normandy and I get out of my combat gear 20 minutes after I get a message from Tali.

'My room now.'

I head up and knock on the door it opens and I walk in Tali is sitting on her bed, she motions for me to come over and remotely closes and locks the door.

"Ok Jon I-I don't think I want that much insight, just tell me what you think is necessary for what's happening, ok?"

"Just enough to be ready?" She nods. "Ok only what's necessary… uhm do you have any questions?"

She just gives me this 'are you kidding me' look.

"Yeah ok uh first question?"

"What's this game Mass Effect like?"

"Well you play as Commander Shepard, at the start of the game you choose all the character stats-"

"Wait you choose his stats like strength and intelligence or something?"

"No, you choose gender, one of three past military events and one of three pre military lives."

"You get to choose gender?"

"Yes, you basically make every decision about what Shepard does."

"That seems so strange…"

For the next hour or so I explain allot of the basics of the game, how I know so much about everyone, ect… but then we get to a certain topic.

"You can even choose who he falls in love with?"

"Kind of, in the first game there are only two options available to male or female."

"Really… who?" She asks slightly cautious.

"Well Liara is open to either gender, male can also be with Ash, female can be with Kaidan."

"I'm not an option?"

"Neither is Garrus, but you and Garrus become romance able in the second game."

"Did you ever uh direct Shepard down… that path?"

"Yeah uh I did."

She closes her eyes and leans her head back against the wall. "Why?"

"Uh… I dunno, I liked your character, you were more interesting than other characters, and I was… interested to find what you were like…"

"You mean what I looked like."

"Well partly yeah, but I also wanted to know who you are, that's something the game never really did, they never showed what you looked like and they never described your personality in great detail." I stop for a moment. "Not like here, where I can get to know who you are and what you're like."

"Most people who take an interest in Quarians at all just want to know what we look like."

"I've never been very concerned about looks, sure I'm curious but it wouldn't change my opinion of you."

"Not even if I'm beautiful?" She asks mockingly.

"Well that would be nice but you would still be you, besides I already think you're beautiful."

"_Oh shit did I just say that?"_

"Oh uh thanks Jon no one's ever said that to me before." She says hugging her knees to her chest.

"Yeah… uh well is there-" She suddenly reaches over and hugs me, I'm startled for a second but then return the embrace, we stay like that for a few moments before she pulls away.

"Thanks Jon, you're a good friend."

"What would I be if I wasn't at least that?" We both chuckle. "If you ever need anything don't be afraid to ask me."

"Same to you, now that I know you can come talk to me about it if you want."

"Yeah it's nice that someone knows now thanks, I should get back to work now."

"Yeah me too, uh see you later Jon."

"Yeah later Tali."

I walk down the corridor with my hands in my pockets and let out a long breath. _"That went much better than I thought it would."_

I head back down to my station and keep working on my project.

* * *

><p>-A few days later-<p>

I'm working at my bench slowly turning the helmet over in my hands when Shepard walks up.

"New helmet?"

"Yup, one of the few things I hadn't custom made yet."

The helmet is sleek smooth black with an oval face that has one line going down the center of the face, the line flows all the way over the helmet to the back where it stops at the end of a spike, several spikes come off the back of the helmet and curve up so that the top looks somewhat like an Asari's head does. The only feature of the face is two perfectly circular eyes that glow an icy blue.

"Watch this."

I key a program on my Omni tool and the face of the helmet splits as a jagged mouth opens up on the mask curving into a twisted smile resembling some kind of demented jack-o-lantern, the mouth also glows an icy blue.

"Why does it do that?"

"Intimidation factor, activate this mode during combat, or when you want to scare the piss out of someone. It's got a voice modulator too."

"Well it definitely seems like something you would do."

I just smile.

"Well you're getting a chance to test it we've got a mission get your boots on."

"Aye aye bossman."

I get my gear together and get ready, I head up to the airlock where Garrus is waiting, Shepard comes over shortly after and we head out for the mission.

"So boss what's this mission?" I ask.

"Were investigating an asteroid X57." He replies.

"_Oh, well this should be fun."_

-After the Mission-

"Fucking goddam Varren, I just made this helmet!" I growl angrily as I walk down into the cargo bay.

I take the helmet off and begin assessing the damage being clawed in the face does to your helmet. Apparently three long scratches starting above my left eye to the right cheek, I set the helmet down and start removing the rest of my gear. Tali walks over shortly after and leans against my workbench.

"How'd the mission go?" She asks.

"Good, we were able to shut off the torches, and killed the bastard running the operation, saved some engineers too, defused a bomb, walked through a mine field, got clawed in the face by a Varren."

"Keelah, I can see that." She says picking up the helmet and tracing the gashes.

"I just freakin made that helmet too." I grumble finishing putting my gear away.

"Well it worked well these aren't very deep." She pauses for a moment in thought. "You wanted to use this to intimidate people right?"

"When necessary, yeah, why?"

"Couldn't you fill these scratches with the same material you used for the mouth, then they would glow."

I stand there for a second looking at the helmet. "That would look sweet, you're an evil genius."

"You've told me that before."

"Well it's true." I reply.

She just giggles. "You know Shepard said we're taking a day off of missioning to just relax and recuperate, it's not official shore leave because we'll just be floating around out here but still…"

"You wanna go play some armored warfare?" I asks.

"I've almost got that Z-122 SPG." She says as we both get in the elevator.

"That thing is a monster! Doesn't it take forever to reload tho?"

"Yes but-" And we continue on in nerd speak up to the mess hall where we plan our gaming spree for tomorrow. Liara is just sitting there looking back and forth between me and Tali for about 5 minutes.

"What are you two talking about?" She asks very confused.

"Were talking about a computer game." I reply.

"I can't understand a thing you're saying! Z-122, zis6, 4t… what does it mean?"

Tali speaks up. "Think about it as if we were talking about engines."

"I don't understand when you talk about tech, you need training and time to familiarize with th- ooooh, I get it." Liara nods. "Well go on continue your… what is the phrase? Gibberish?"

I chuckle. "Yes, gibberish." Tali and I share a look, she chuckles.

We continue to talk while I have a bite to eat.

"Hey Tali, you know I never see you eat. How do you do that?" I ask, she knows by now if I ask something like this it is out of genuine curiosity.

"Well in this pouch on my leg there are two tubes one has water the other nutrient paste, they feed up to a tube in my helmet."

"So you could be eating in the middle of a battle and no one would know?"

"I've done that before."

I just give her a look.

"What I was hungry!"

I just start laughing she joins me a second later and we just sit there laughing for a few minutes. We finally stop laughing and then my Omni tool beeps.

"Hello?"

"Hey Jon it's Vic, you still remember me don't you?"

"Ha! Of course I do Vic. Whats up?"

"I was bored so I thought I'd call and see how you were doing."

"Nice to know I'm at the forefront of you're thoughts."

Tali gets up and waves but I grab her and push her back into her seat, I set the call to speaker and put my hand out in the middle of the table.

"Vic I'd like you to meet someone. This is Tali'Zorah Nar Rayya."

"Uh hello." Tali says nervously.

"A Quarian eh? I always figured you would get with another species."

"Hey were not like that!" Tali and I say at the same time.

"And that right there proves it." I just groan.

So me Vic and Tali all have a nice conversation and catch up on life. Turns out Eden prime is mostly repaired and Vic is bored because Ash and I are gone. After the chat I say my goodbyes and head off to bed.

* * *

><p><em>I'm standing on a catwalk made of what appears to be brass or something similar surrounded by clockwork in all directions save a single path continuing onwards. With no other option I move on, I walk for a while passing huge gears, pistons, pendulums, and all kinds of other steampunk machinery. I finally come to a large circular platform, in the center is a pedestal with a gear floating above it. I walk up to it and reach out to touch it when I do the gear bursts in all directions in a slow motion explosion, turning into data and code as it goes. I stare at all the data, and things begin to stick out, I start moving around bits of code and lines light up in a cerulean blue as they are completed. After a few minutes I finish reorganizing the code, as soon as the last piece connects the gear instantly reforms but is now smooth black with ice blue lines crisscrossing it like code. Suddenly a large but feminine voice resounds through the area.<em>

"_You truly do possess the affinity, well done Resonant."_

The dream fades and I wake up. "_Well that was strange, I wonder if the affinity the voice was talking about was the same one that hologram was talking about? Or was this just a dream? Maybe I'll talk to Tali about it." _

I hop down from the bed, Garrus is sleeping in the bottom bunk and I leave a holographic post it note saying 'congratulations you made it to an actual bed.' And with that I take my leave. Heading into the mess hall and grabbing some food, I notice it's a bit early but I don't really care. As I'm eating a yawning Tali walks off the elevator and sits down next to me.

"Mornin sunshine." I say. "You're up early."

"I'm used to getting up early, it's been nice to sleep in every now and then though."

"Heh, I bet. Ready for a whole day of doing whatever we want?"

"Yes, I'm going to go get my portable."

**(A/N: Portable: Futuristic Laptop)**

"I'll get mine too." I reply getting up and heading back to my quarters.

As I come in Garrus is examining the note I left him.

"Haha very funny." He says sarcastically.

I just give him a big grin, grab my portable and leave.

And so Tali and I sit down at the mess table and play various games, as the day goes by most of the crew comes in at one point or another sits down and chats or eats or something else. Liara, Shepard, and Kaidan sit down and watch a vid at one point during the day Tali and I pause for a minute but go back to our game when the movie fails to interest us. After the movie Shepard comes over to us.

"How long have you been at this?" He asks.

Tali checks her clock. "About seven hours. Why?"

"Seven hours? You guys aren't bored yet?"

"Hey I've been deprived of this until now, leave me alone!" Tali says jokingly.

I chuckle. "What can I say? We're nerds."

Shepard chuckles but actually sticks around for a while before coming down with his own portable and getting a few games. Kaidan walks over later.

"Shepard? I didn't know you played games." The biotic says confused.

"I blame these two, but some of these games are pretty cool…" Shepard replies motioning to Tali and me.

"Aren't these for kids?" Kaidan asks.

Liara walks up next to him. "Are you here to try these video-games too Kaidan?"

"You too Liara?" He says exasperatedly.

"Yes, this human game interested me, it shows a land where they have magic instead of biotics, and they still use swords and primitive armor." **(Dragon Age rules!) **

Liara sits down next to Shepard, they share a brief smile before Liara turns on her computer.

"Well I'm with you Alenko, these geeks are weird." Ash says walking up.

"You might be surprised if you ever tried one." I reply.

"Where's Garrus he isn't in on this is he?" Kaidan asks.

"He's preferred to play from his baby, he sitting on top of the Mako." I reply.

"Hey I heard that!" Garrus voice come through the comm link for our game.

"I know."

"What about Wrex? Surely he isn't playing games?" Ash asks.

"I've been playing games for longer than you've been alive, It's a good way to relive stress, and anger." Wrex's voice comes up through another comm.

"See look you're the only one who isn't enjoying a good group activity." I say.

"No Kaidans got my- HEY! What are you doing?"

"Hmm? Oh this game actually looks kinda cool." Kaidan says sitting down next to Shepard.

"You're kidding me!"

Everyone starts laughing. The day goes by mostly like that, people coming and going, sharing games and having an all-around good time, Ash finally relents later in the evening ship time, and plays a few games. Tali and I are the last ones in the mess hall and we're packing up our stuff.

"Well that was a good day." Tali says.

"Yeah, It's good to just relax every now and again."

"We're headed to Noveria tomorrow."

"Yup, fight some Geth and Benezia… and the Rachni."

"That's right you said they overran the lab right?"

"Yep, but their queen understands why the Rachni were wiped out, and Shepard can let her go."

"But they overran the facility doesn't that prove they're hostile?"

"The children are separated from the queen so she can't teach them and they go crazy, but the queen is willing to help against the Reapers."

"You know that for a fact?"

"Well nothing happens in the first game and she contacts you to say that they're rebuilding well in the second game. And we're going to need every ally we can get."

"I hope you're right Jon." She lowers her eyes and shakes her head. "If you're wrong then-"

I grab her shoulders and pull her into a hug. "Hey well be fine, Shepard's here and I'm not going to let some crazy bugs stop us."

She returns the embrace. "So what does this make… us?"

"What do you want it to make?"

"No ones ever asked me what I wanted before…"

"Well I am. Do you want us to be… more?"

"I-I do Jon, I've never met anybody like you before and I like you."

I can't stop a huge grin from my face and I grab her around the waist and lift her up and spin around, I stop after a few turns and set her down.

"I like you to Tali, I never had much luck with women before, maybe swapping universes was better than I thought."

She giggles. "You're such a dork! But so am I… heh I've never been in a relationship before either, is there a manual for this?"

I laugh. "No maybe we should just make it up as we go."

"So same as usual then?"

We both laugh. "Well as long as I'm going into the great unknown with you, I'm happy."

"Thanks Jon, uhm I guess I'll talk to you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, sweet dreams." She turns one last time smiling with her eyes before going to her room.

I sigh contentedly.

"_Imagine that I'm falling in love with an alien, awesome."_

My last thoughts before drifting to sleep are of Tali.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Weeeeell that took a while to write, but it's just over 5,700 words of chapter! Yay.**

**School stuff and finals are screwing me up and will be for another week or so, so the Noveria chapter will probably take a while, but lots of good stuff this chapter, mostly Tali, but got a bit of everyone. And just to clarify Jon and Tali are 'Testing the waters' so to speak but they have admitted mutual affection so there you go. **

**Tried a few different things this chapter, it took so long to write the beginning is a slightly different style than the end but I digress,**

**Thanks to all the lovely people who review and added me to alerts you're all amazing!**

**As always thanks for reading and ROCK ON!**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Ok Noveria here we come, last chapter took forever to write due to finals and crap, granted so did this one but thanks to my new laptop I now have more time for writing, now I just need to solve this procrastination and we'll be good.**

**And one of my watchers on DeviantArt, rex3cutor, made a beautiful 3D model of my M-12 Assault shotgun. I'll put a link on my profile if anyone is interested.**

Chapter 9: It's fucking cold out there, that's why

* * *

><p>Tali POV-<p>

I walk over towards Jon's workbench, I think a little about what happened between us. We haven't really acted any different around each other since then, we've just admitted that there's possibly more than friendship between us, and for now that's good.

I see Jon sitting on a stool leaning on his bench scratching something in his hand with the point of a knife.

Jon POV-

"What are you doing?" Tali asks walking up to me.

I sit up and show her the dog tags in my hand. "Personalizing my dog tags."

"Dog tags?"

"Soldiers wear them so that if they get blown up or something people know who it was, they're kind of obsolete now but they get issued anyway." I let her take the tags from my hand.

"SR1, Therum, Feros, Eden Prime, your scratching in our major missions?"

"Yup, to remind me that I survived."

"In case you forgot right?" She taunts.

"I forget to breathe sometimes…"

She chuckles handing the dog tags back to me. "That's new though."

I bring the knife forward, 7" of a high tech alloy designed to be hard and hold an edge, straight blade that cuts back at the end like a katana. "After my close encounter with that Varren I wanted a knife, won't help me with Geth or a Krogan but still useful."

The PA comes to life. "Knight, Tali, Wrex, and Kaidan suit up we're almost to Noveria."

I stand up and start getting my stuff out and put on, Tali does the same. I strap the knife onto my side just under my ribs for easy access, I grab a few more clips shoving them into various pockets before heading over to the elevator. Wrex and Tali also get in and the elevator starts it crawl. It eventually stops at the crew quarters and opens. We walk up to the airlock where Kaidan and Shepard are waiting. We arrive just as Joker calls in our approach, the same icy reply from the game comes back and Joker makes his vote for shore leave. We move into the airlock and I put my helmet on, Kaidan gives me a weird look.

"What?" I ask.

"You're putting your helmet on?" He asks.

"Yeah."

"Why?"  
>The door opens and a blast of icy cold air rushes in. "It's fucking cold out there, that's why."<p>

He doesn't reply to that, just marches out with Shepard. We walk down the hall to the guards. "_Ugh, I hate this bitch."_

"Stop, what's your business here."

"Spectre business." Shepard replies

"What a load of horsecrap." The blond bitch says.

"We'll have to confirm that, we have to confiscate your weapons."

"No" Shepard says, not moving.

The guards bring their weapons up, I pull out my Phalanx and put on that big smile. Everyone else pulls weapons as well. I see the turian guard look at my helmet so I switch my aim over to him and flip on the laser pointing it directly at his forehead.

"Charge and lock, I won't ask again, surrender your weapons." Matsuo says.

"You first." Replies Shepard.

Wrex lets out a deep chuckle.

The turian guard looks like he's had enough and slowly lays his avenger on the floor, and steps back, I switch my aim over to the blond bitch who growls at the Turian for being a coward. I smile under my helmet.

"Captain Matsuo stand down! Spectres are allowed to carry weapons."

The guard slowly lowers her weapon as do all of us with Shepard. We begin to walk past and I pick up the Turian's assault rifle and hand it back to him.

"Smart move mate." I say as I walk away.

We head past the counter, and Parasani tells Shepard that we should see Anoleis. As we come out into the main area Shepard stops and looks around.

"Ok, go ahead and look through the shops, this is technically not governed by council law so they might have some good stuff. I'm going to go see about a garage pass." Shepard says addressing the rest of the squad.

There are various replies ranging from full sentences to short grunts (Wrex). Tali and I wander off to some of the tech shops, and I look over some weapons too. There is a whole market area here that wasn't in the game, it looks similar to the markets on Illium. I've taken the helmet off because we're inside, it's not exactly warm in here but it's not real cold either. I'm only glancing at the weapons vendor, I really want a Mattock but haven't been able to find one, since it's an older weapon I'm not surprised when I don't find it amongst the other high tech weapons. Tali is also only halfheartedly browsing, she leans over towards me.

"All our stuff is better than this." She says in a hushed voice.

"Yeah, but with our ability to upgrade tech because of you, and Weapons because of me, I'm not really surprised." I reply.

"Hehe we are pretty great huh?"

I chuckle "The best."

Shepard's voice comes over the comm. "Setback getting the garage pass, I'm going to see about an alternative."

A few more minutes pass by as I continue scanning over the vendors, then the comm comes back to life.

"Alright everyone get over to the Synthetic Insights building I'll meet you there."

I and Tali head over to the elevator waiting outside Kaidan and Wrex wander over shortly. As Shepard walks up I put my helmet back on.

"Alright, there are some crooked cops inside ransacking the place for Anoleis, we're going in to get the data they want and give it back to Lorik qui'in. In return he'll lend us his garage pass."

"Simple enough." Kaidan replies.

Shepard opens the elevator stops and looks in and then back at us.

"Uh, Tali, Wrex, wait for us at the bar, ok?"

They both have equal 'awwwww…' faces but head off all the same.

"Someone to watch qui'in?" Kaidan asks.

"No, they wouldn't have fit in the elevator." Shepard replies as we pile in, it's a bit tight in full armor.

"Oh, uh right commander."

The ride up is silent and when we pile out a confused guard confronts us.

"Hey this place is off limits, we're conducting an investigation."

"Since when did people hire mercenaries to investigate?" Shepard asks turning to us.

I shrug and Kaidan shakes his head, Shepard turns back to the guard.

"We aren't mercenaries we're guar-"

"Cut the crap, Anoleis is paying you under the table, Leave or die." Shepard says with a bit of menace.

"Shit, uh yeah I'm out of here." One of the guards says, the rest of them follow soon after.

We walk up to the second floor and grab the info from qui'in's terminal, on our way out we're confronted by the blond bitch and some guards.

"You're not supposed to be in here, surrender yourselves."

Shepard looks back to us and nods, we pull out weapons as Shepard turns back to the guards. He looks as if he's about to say something then he just pulls his pistol and starts shooting. I chose the shotgun for this encounter and started unloading on the surprised guards, Kaidan flares some biotics and Shepard keeps up with his pistol, the fight is over in moments. The guards were poorly armed and armored, AND we surprised them. No Chance.

I reload as we walk back down to the elevator. Parasani confronts us in the hallway outside synthetic insights.

"We heard reports of noise like gunfire from the synthetic insights building, you wouldn't happen to have heard anything would you?"

"Us? No, we didn't hear a brief gunfight between some corrupt cops and a spectre or anything like that…" Shepard replies.

"Uh huh, well if you didn't happen to pick up some evidence you should see me up at the bar before you talk to Qui'in." Parasani walks off afterwards.

We head over to the bar, Tali and Wrex join back up with us, Shepard gives them the abbreviated story and then we walk over to Parasani. She tells Shepard that's she's and undercover blah story plot blah blah. Ugh I hate bureaucracy. But Shepard convinces Qui'in to testify and Parasani arrests Anoleis, quite satisfying.

Anyhow now that that part of the mission is done we head down to the garage. I nudge Tali and nod patting my pistol, she gets the message and nods back. The guard lets us through and Shepard observes the garage, I swear he can sense when something's up. All of a sudden Geth pop up from behind various objects and start shooting, everyone dives for cover and my sniper is in my hand in a matter of seconds. I position myself over by the grizzly near the back and set up my rifle. I line up on a piece of cover some Geth are hiding behind and wait for one to pop up, as soon as one does I blast him right in the chest. Then there is a deafening boom and it feels like a bomb just went off next to my head. I hit the deck holding the side of my head, no damage but my ears are ringing.

"Are you ok Jon?" Kaidan asks coming up next to me. I can barely hear him, it sounds like he's talking through water.

"What the fuck was that?" I almost shout.

"Some Geth sniper in the back, I've never seen a gun like that!"

"_Holy shit that Geth must have an M98 Widow… It must be MINE!"_

I shake my head a few more times to try and clear the rest of the ringing, there's another loud report and a round bounces off the top of our cover.

"Shit how are we supposed to get him?" Kaidan asks.

"I don't kn-" wait weren't there fuel cells in here in the game?

"Hey did you see a bunch of fuel tanks when you came in?" I ask.

"Yeah, I don't see how that-" a look of realization dawns and we both pull out grenades.

"3, 2, 1, NOW!" we both chuck our grenades in the general direction of the sniper and duck back down again.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!" I yell.

BOOOOM!

Several explosions go off and flaming debris scatters across the garage, after everything settles a bit I stand up slowly and look around.

I hear a long low whistle as Shepard walks up next us. "It's always explosions with you isn't it?"

"I that a bad thing?" I reply.

"Naw just figured I'd point it out."

I start walking over to where the shots were coming from. "Now I just have to find that gun…"

After a few minutes of gingerly kicking around hot debris I find a partially blow up Geth sniper with a huge fucking gun next to him. I pick it up slowly inspecting it for damage. The 39 kilogram rifle only has superficial damage the previous owners body protected it from the blast. I hear shouting over by the entrance to the garage and turn to see Captain Matsuo yelling at Shepard and wildly gesturing to the flaming fuel tanks. My attention soon switches to Tali as she walks up to me.

"You found it?"

"Yes, an M-98 Widow anti-material rifle."

"So if that Geth had actually hit you?"

"I would be dead, end of story, period."

"Keelah, that was close."

"Yeah no kidding" I say slowly as the fact of that slowly starts to sink in.

"_Jesus, that was close, I could have been dead right there, this isn't a game no respawns, no retries, no one-ups."  
><em>

* * *

><p>Shepard beckons us over to the Mako and we all pile in, to my chagrin Kaidan takes the gunners seat, darn. We head out into the blistering winds at full speed, and not long later Kaidan begins opening up on the Geth, but me and Tali don't even have a view of what's going on although Wrex seems to be enjoying the show from the passenger's seat. I begin idly examining my new weapon as there isn't much else to do.<p>

"So can you use that thing?" Tali asks motioning to the rifle.

"No, if I tried to fire it, it would rip my arm off. But I can modify it so that I can use it, gotta figure out how this monster works first."

"Doesn't make allot of sense to make a weapon normal people can't use does it?"

"Well I wouldn't call us normal people, and it wasn't made to be fired by organics it's a Geth weapon."

**(A/N: As far as I know that's true, if it's not Geth made in the game, it is Geth made in my universe. Partially for story bits later on.)**

"So how do you know about it then?"

I glance around before replying. "I've seen them from before Eden Prime."

A look of realization comes to her eyes. "Oh, right I'm sure that fancy weapons school has some info on it." She says giving me a look that's says _'I know what you really mean'._

"Yeah, just a bit."

Shepard stops the Mako in front of Peak 15 and we pile out. The storm has briefly stopped and it is just lightly snowing now. Tali stops and looks up to the shy holding her arms out and watching the snow melt on her gloves.

"Beautiful isn't it?" I ask standing next to her, the others are fiddling with the door to the facility.

"Yes, I don't know if it ever snows on Rannoch, I assume at the poles but I've never seen snow like this." She seems mystified by the serene silence of the snowfall. "Did it snow where you came from, you know before Eden Prime?"

"Michigan, and hell yes, winters were cold and snowy, but I never get tired of its beauty… and I'll never get tired of yours either." I say briefly hugging her, she returns the hug and averts her eyes in adorable shyness.

"Jon… hehe." She wrings her hands together nervously.

An exclamation of joy from behind us brings us back to the mission, Shepard waves us over and I heft my assault rifle and jog over, Tali close behind me. As we enter the facility Geth immediately open fire on us, everyone ducks behind cover and begins returning fire. Tali overloads a Geth's shields then I incinerate it, I fire controlled bursts of assault rifle at any Geth that present themselves and a after a few moments the fight dies out. The last kill is Wrex blowing away a Krogan with his shotgun. We walk past the turrets into the facility proper.

"Why are the turrets facing the wrong way?" Kaidan asks.

"Maybe something went wrong with one of the experiments." I propose, not giving away too much.

"That's usually what happens with these far out research facilities." Wrex says.

"What are you basing that off of?" Kaidan asks skeptically.

"A thousand years of experience." Wrex replies evenly.

"And this sort of thing really happens allot?" Kaidan asks.

"More than you would imagine."

"That seems so clichéd."

Well we get into another room with Geth in it and a firefight ensues, but midway through the fight a ventilation grill opens and Rachni pour out. I let loose an incinerate on one and switch to my shotgun. We stick close together and manage to keep the Rachni at bay as well as finish the Geth.

"Is everyone alright?" Shepard calls out.

A chorus of affirmatives respond before the real question comes up.

"What the fuck were those things?" Kaidan asks.

"They looked like Rachni but that's not possible, my ancestors wiped them out!" Wrex growls angrily.

"Whatever they are they must be the reason this facility went dark, come on let's keep moving." Shepard orders.

We all fall in behind him as he moves to the next room. We pass through an absurd amount of doors before coming to Vira's control center. As we enter the vents burst open and Rachni flood out.

"Shit Open fire!" Shepard yells.

I unleash with my shotgun but the tube empties quickly, I step back to reload and get knocked on my back by a vent bursting open next to me. A Rachni leaps out on top of me and I whack it with the butt of my gun, but it grabs it with one of its weird arm… things. Shut up. With my right hand no longer on the gun I grab my knife and start repeatedly stabbing at it's face.

"Just fucking die!"

It lashes at me with it's other 'arm' and I narrowly pull my head away. I stab the arm with my knife and it starts wrestling with me. One hand on my gun and one on the knife it starts pushing onto me trying to bite me. I get an idea. I push with all my strength in my right arm pointing my fist at it's face.

"_This is gunna be bad."_

I trigger an incinerate point blank into it's face, it rears up screeching and I kick it away rolling off to the side and coming up on my hands and knees. Breathing heavy and heart racing I pull my pistol out and finish the danm thing.

"_Fuck that was hot."_

I lean back against the wall and pull my helmet off and just focus on deep breaths. Tali and Shepard run over having finished the rest of the Rachni. Kaidan looks over them a few feet away and Wrex gives me a glance.

"Are you ok? Jon? Jon?" Tali asks frantically checking over me.

"Tali, Tali!" I grab her wrists and hold them together. "I'm alright, ok? I'm ok."

"Keelah Jon, don't scare me like that."

"Believe me I would avoid it if I could."

Shepard gives me a hand up, and puts a hand on my shoulder.

"You're good? Yeah? Ok good man."

I go over and pick my gun and knife back up and make sure to reload the shotgun, it's got some new marks on it.

Shepard heads over to the main computer disappearing below.

"That's not bad human, you're tougher than you look. However little that may be." Wrex says.

I just nod. I pull my helmet back out and examine it. It's scorched in a few places as is the front of my chest piece. But still working, I slip it back on as Shepard reappears from the core.

…

"Knight, Tali see if you can fix the stupid machine." Shepard says looking a bit miffed.

We both get in the lift, it's a bit tight but I don't mind… dirty thoughts bad go away come again some other time. The lift stops at the bottom and Tali examines it.

"Can you fix it?" I ask.

"Yeah, shouldn't be too hard."

"Don't tell Shepard that."

She giggles, I lean back against the opposite wall letting out a long breath.

"I noticed you've been using your Omni tool more in combat."

"Yeah I was able to tweak the power output a bit and upgrade my overload and incinerate."

"I've almost got an AI hacking program working, only works for a few seconds but it helps."

"Yeah, I need to figure out an ammo modifier."

She bends over half way reaching for her boot and grabs the knife she keeps there. She uses it to pry out some fried electronics before putting the panel back and turning to me.

"Done."

I hit the lift button and it takes us back up. When we get out Vira activates and begins talking to Shepard about landlines and all the repair crap we have to do. After that we head back up to the roof. We kill all the Geth and Rachni and reconnect the landlines. Then we head over to the Fuel pumping station and kill some Geth in there too, reactivate the fuel and then head back to Vira who informs us the tram is working again. We get on the tram and Shepard starts it up. I sit down with a huff and pull out my canteen. Cheers.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Woo finally finished this chapter, first multi chapter mission and at just under three and a half thousand words it's not too bad. Anywho school is tough but this beautiful laptop will hopefully assist in my writing speed. I really do recommend checking out rex3utor's 3D model, it looks amazing and he has models of other Mass Effect guns as well. **

**Well I think that's it thanks for reading and ROCK ON!**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Ok so here is part two of Noveria, this will cover the rest of the mission. Well it is currently just past one AM right now so… fuck.**

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 10: Always explosives<span>

The tram comes to a stop and we move out cautiously. I keep scanning the area for ventilation grilles, dam they're everywhere.

"Lotta places to come from in here boss." I say quietly to Shepard.

"Yeah, keep your eyes peeled everyone, especially vents."

We continue moving through the hundreds of doors in this place before we see the security team.

"Hey were huma- ach er good guys." Shepard yells to the guards.

The captain stands up from his cover, cautiously glancing around. "Whew, I heard noises and thought it was more Rachni."

"How is it there are Rachni here in the first place?" Shepard asks pointedly.

"I wouldn't know one of the docs might be able to tell you, they just pay me to shoot things." He replies evasively.

I half listen to the conversation while still watching for bugs. A few minutes later I hear a loud thump from one of the vents. I raise my shotgun and get Tali's attention; she nods and raises her shotgun too. Another thump and Shepard turns around aiming his weapon and signaling the others to do the same. The vent suddenly bursts open and a Rachni jumps out only to be decimated in a hail of gunfire. More vents burst and we have to un-focus our fire, the security forces behind us are helping but they honestly aren't very good, tired, injured, and ill equipped as they are. There are only a few Rachni in this wave and we kill them pretty quickly.

"These things are allot easier to manage when you're expecting them." Kaidan says reloading his pistol.

"Yeah, lets keep it that way as much as possible." Shepard says.

We move into the area where all the survivors are situated, Shepard talks to the doctor and agrees to go get his cure, we talk to the captain and head down to the quarantined barracks. I remember that the Asari attacks you in here, so when we enter the room I lean against the wall next to the door while Shepard makes the cure. Sure enough the Asari and two Geth walk in so intent on Shepard that they don't check their corners. She addresses Shepard as I bring up my shotgun.

"Your journey ends here!"

"Not today." I reply calmly from behind her.

She whirls around and I fire, point blank range there's no chance, I quickly switch to one of the Geth and everyone else fires at the other. It's over shortly.

"How many of these people are on Saren's payroll? Half of them? All of them?" Kaidan asks rhetorically.

"I think it's safe to assume we can't trust many of the people here." Shepard replies grimly.

We step around the bodies and head back up to give the doctor the cure. He's grateful and gives us his maintenance pass so we can get into the labs. We head back down and through maintenance tunnels into the labs. The head researcher is just sitting there in a chair.

"Hey! Are you alright?" Shepard asks coming up to the man.

"Yes, we need to activate the neutron purge and clear the facility!" He replies.

"Hang on, what's going on here?"

I remember what happens to this guy so I move off and begin examining the room for entrances. Shepard keeps talking to the doctor about the Rachni. I hear something in a corner of the room and see a Rachni moving towards the doctor.

"Shepard!" I shout aiming at the Rachni and firing.

Shepard sees it and fires his pistol, it dies before it can reach the doctor.

"We need to activate the purge!" The doctor says again.

"Here give me the code to activate it and get up stairs it's too dangerous down here."

"Ah, yes here."

The doctor heads back upstairs and we move into the control room to activate the purge. I get ready to make a quick exit, and Shepard activates the countdown. We quickly run back to the elevator, firing randomly at the Rachni in the way. We reach the elevator and pile in, as it ascends the countdown tics away on Shepard's Omni tool.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

A massive explosion followed by a constant roaring for several seconds follow up the shaft rocking the elevator, it screeches and grinds to a halt.

"Stupid bosh'tet elevator."

"Out the escape hatch, we'll just have to climb the rest of the way." Shepard says opening the hatch on the ceiling.

I link my fingers together and give Tali a boost up, she gives me her hand and helps pull me up. Shepard and Kaidan follow shortly after, but Wrex well he's too big for the hatch.

"Start climbing I got this." I say.

Shepard just shrugs and starts climbing up the shaft. It has an emergency ladder on one wall.

"Ladies first." Shepard says, gesturing elegantly to the ladder.

"What so you can stare at my ass for 20 floors? Nuh uh get going." Tali replies.

Shepard blanches at that a slightly shocked expression on his face. He shakes his head and steps up to the ladder.

"You're rubbing off on her Jon, human curses, and practical knowledge like that."

I snort "Whatever you say bossman but you just got busted."

"I was not trying to look at her ass!" Shepard replies from a continually lengthening distance up the ladder.

I wait for them to get a ways up the ladder before I stick my head through the hole and talk to Wrex.

"Ok, so I'm going to try and make the hole bigger by blowing it up with a grenade ok?"

"The elevators not going to fall is it?"

"Nah, when one of these fancy mass effect elevators has a malfunction like this it locks up so I can't fall."

"Alright just don't blow me up ok?"

"I won't just uh make sure you're shields are good and stand as far away as you can."

He grunts and I stick a grenade to the side of the hatch set the timer and quickly start climbing the ladder.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!"

BOOM!

I look down to see the hole widened enough and Wrex climbs out.

"You good?"

"Pfft grenades are worthless, I've been in closer with allot bigger things."

"I figured, come on let's get out of this shaft."

The climb out takes about five minutes and when I get to the top Shepard pulls me the last bit up.

"Always explosives."

"It worked didn't it?"

He just shakes his head and we keep moving.

* * *

><p>We head deeper into the facility, if I remember correctly all we have left is fighting Banezia. We head into the large room where Banezia is.<p>

"Bah, Saren will succeed his light fills my mind!"

"Banezia we can help you! Just stand down."

"No! Tell me commander have you ever fought an Asari commando unit before? Few humans ever have." She then lets loose her- OH SHIT THAT'S NOT A STASIS OOF!

Shepard takes the brunt of the push but is propelled backwards into me.

I groan as Shepard rolls off of me and offers me a hand. "At least I didn't knock you out this time."

"Yeah yeah, we gotta stop doing that." I grunt as I scramble for cover next to Tali.

"You ok Jon?"

"Yeah I'll feel that later though." She nods and starts returning fire with her assault rifle.

We end up in a fairly tight firefight with the Geth and commandoes she sends at us, we're getting shot at from three directions and returning fire through the cluttered room. Biotics are impacting all around and I have to watch for moving crates. A biotic lift hits the crate I'm hiding behind and I have to scramble to another piece of cover as it floats into the air. We slowly whittle away all the Geth and Asari then move up onto the platform where Banezia is.

"Fools! I will destroy you!" I prep a carnage round in my shotgun.

She sends an attack at us and I hear Wrex grunt as he is knocked off balance by the push. I fire my carnage and see it score a solid hit on her barriers. The fight is brief; while her barriers are formidable we simply outnumber her. She eventually collapses Shepard goes over to receive her final helpful information. I take a moment to check myself over, my armor has several new dings and dents but I appear to be ok. I'll enjoy it while my adrenaline is still numbing the overall punishment my body has taken.

"Are you ok Tali?" I ask quietly.

"Yeah I'm gunna be real sore though."

"Yeah me too, no punctures or anything though?"

"No the armor upgrades you've given me work well."

"Good, that's what they're for."

Me and Tali are a bit separated from the group looking out the Window, Shepard, Wrex, and Kaidan are all over by the queens tank.

"Oh and don't be too shocked if one of those commandoes gets back up."

"What?"

"WHAT THE-"

We whirl around to see Shepard pointing his gun at an Asari who has gotten back up and walks over to stand in front of the tank.

"This one serves as our voice, we cannot sing not in these low spaces. Your music's are colorless." The voice seems to be more than just the Asari speaking, almost as if part of it is being spoken directly to your mind, It transmits a sense of wonder and seems to fill the entire room.

I and Tali come a bit closer to everyone else.

"Music? What Music?" Shepard asks confused.

"Your way of communicating is strange, flat it does not color the air, when we speak one moves all, we are the… mother."

"We sing for those left behind the children you silenced, we are Rachni."

"You're speaking through this Asari?"

"Our kind sing through touchings of thought, we pluck the strings and the other understands."

"They literally communicate through thought, that's why it's translating oddly, music, color the air, it's the closest thing in our language to what she's trying to say." I speak up.

"Yes, this one understands our dilemma; we find it difficult to convey our meaning through your language."

She pauses for a moment.

"You are not like the others here, your music is strange, clear then erratic, wild and then calm, there is also a strange… synthetic quality to it, like the machines that were here."

"You're saying Jon talks like one of the Geth?"

"In some part like a machine but then not again like any living thing we have encountered."

"But that is not why we sing to you now, we sing for our incarceration. Will you allow us to compose anew, or will our music fade to the blackness of time?"

"Lets melt the bug Shepard, we don't need another Rachni war." Wrex says.

"I don't know Shepard… we need any allies we can get but… I don't know it's up to you." Tali says.

"She seems to have learned her lesson, and we definitely need allies." I say.

"The Rachni were a major threat to the galaxy, but the reapers threaten them too, maybe we should let her go…" Kaidan is the last member to speak up.

Shepard nods and goes over to the controls.

"I won't destroy your race, you're free to go."

"We will compose anew! We will make sure our children sing of you for generations."

The tank moves up and the queen leaves.

"Now you got bugs singing about you Shepard." Wrex grumbles.

We head back to the Normandy. As I walk into the cargo bay Garrus comes over.

"Spirits, what happened to you?"

"Rachni, fire, acid, Geth, explosives… What didn't happen would be easier." I reply sarcastically.

"You're ok though, you look like shit."

"Yeah, I'll be sore as hell tomorrow but no major injuries."

The PA comes on. "Everyone up to the briefing room in ten."

"I'm gunna finish putting my stuff away I'll see you later Garrus."

"Yeah should be an interesting debrief." He says walking over to the elevator.

I finish putting my gear away and head up to the debrief. Shepard goes over what happened and we're unsure of what our next move will be until we get more intel. Or a call from the Citadel. We get out of the debrief and I immediately take a shower and grab some food. By the time I go for the food Shepard is regaling the rest of the team with the details of the mission. As I sit down Ash turns to me.

"You went hand-to-hand with a Rachni and then used an incinerate? You should be dead."

"Well I'm not, that was fucking hot though."

We go over the rest of the mission to the squad members who weren't there, I notice Liara isn't with us. I quietly lean over to Shepard.

"How's Liara?"

"I talked with her after the brief she said she's ok but wanted some time alone."

"I think she'll be ok, she's tougher than she looks."

"Yeah, I wish I could help her right now though."

"You do more for this crew than anyone has a right too, if she wants you're company she'll ask, but sometimes you just need to be alone."

"Yeah, I understand her position."

When we finish in the mess hall I drag myself into bed and am out in minutes.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Whew well that's finished next chapter will be an interaction chapter, with maybe a few side missions thrown in there much like the last interaction chapter.**

**I'm not sure but I think I may have wrote part of the mission out of order, I can't remember if you fight Banezia then purge or purge then Banezia or if they were interchangeable. I didn't want to rewrite the part of the chapter and delay it further so I just left it I hope I doesn't bother anyone, sorry.**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing faving alerting ect.., ROCK ON!**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Well some big things going on, first off I recently found a story called "So you're in a self insert?" by Empeorie, I really wish I had found it about three months ago would've been helpful. But it is basically a guide and the do's and don'ts of writing a Mass Effect self insert, including tips from both Herr Wozzeck, AND iNf3ctioNZ, in short it would be stupid to ignore this. So some things are going to change most of them will be long term changes some will not.**

**First major change this was both a tip and something I wanted to do anyway, 'A Sense of Feeling will' become 'Resonance Effect' after this chapter.**

**Second semi-major change the concept of 'the machine affinity' is going to be replaced with 'Resonant/Resonance' I like the way it sounds better and I can tie it to the title.**

**I'm not going to do mid-chapter authors notes, I've only done a couple but that's going to be it.**

**Next I'm looking into getting a Beta reader if any of you would like to PM me and we can set it up, If no one has the prerequisites or whatever it's not crucial but I would like to get someone.**

**I beat ME3 freakin awesome talk more about it in the end note so spoilers beware.**

**This chapter took a while to write sorry about that but MME's ACT's and another stupid test, and then ME3 destroyed all my free time.**

**On a side note I know I'm doing SOMETHING right my review count can attest to that, here's to hoping for bigger and better, Cheers.**

**Well enough of me here's uh… the **_**other**_** me…**

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 11: Something crazy <span>

I groggily open my eyes and slowly get out of bed. "_I knew I was gunna feel that mission in the morning, ugh…"_

I slowly gather some clean clothes and such and grab a nice hot shower, nothing quite so uniquely revitalizing as a simple shower. Afterwards I head over to the mess and grab a bite to eat. Then heading down to the cargo bay to begin the arduous process of fixing all the acid damage of every team members armor… joy. About three hours later I'm carefully fixing the last of the scorches and marks on my armor. "_There almost good as new."_

I put the armor away and turn back to see Wrex walking over to me… odd but whatever.

"Need something Wrex?" I ask casually.

"Maybe, I've watched your work in action a couple times now and I think you might be up for this."

"Uh thanks I guess, what is it you had in mind?"

"I'm not completely sure, I want something that I can use one handed in close combat that's powerful enough to get rid of something big."

I ponder for a moment. "Like what a shotgun?"

"That would be powerful enough but difficult to use one handed."

"Hmmmmm let me think on it, I might be able to come up with something."

He just grunts in response and walks away. I spend the next several hours thinking on Wrex's challenge and slowly disassembling and examining the Widow I picked up on the last mission. After about four hours of this I still have no idea. Not only can I not think of something for Wrex, I still have no clue how this monster of a sniper works. I've pulled the gun apart and scanned every piece half a dozen times, but I'm getting allot of unsolved equations due to its Geth engineering, and without knowing how it works I can't do much to reduce the recoil enough to not rip my arm off. I decide that angrily glaring at the weapon is getting me nowhere so I decide to have some lunch.

…

Lunch proves not to take my mind of things as I'm still going over scans and ideas as I eat.

"What's up Jon?"

"Hmm?" I look up from my sandwich to see Shepard sitting across from me eating as well.

"Well that gun I picked up is giving me trouble, these equations refuse to solve properly and as far as I can tell the Geth have determined a way to divide by zero."

"Do you think Tali could help you? She helped you with Geth tech before right?"

"Yeah but that was shield technology, something she's familiar with, this is all weapon specs she's a genius but I don't think she could help me here."

"Danm, I really wanted that thing gunning for our side."

"Oh I'm going to figure this thing out if it kills me."

"It almost did."

That makes me stop. "Yeah yeah it almost did… Well I better get back to it see you around Boss."

"Knight." He says nodding his head. "_What am I Wrex now?"_

I head back down and sit at my work bench. "_Shit, what am I doing?" _I start wearily rubbing my face with my hands. "_I've got the weight of the galaxy on me at 19, I should be worried about finding a date for prom not how some blasted Geth cannon works… I wonder what my friends are doing back home? My family? Shit I don't even know what really happened to me. I wonder if I'm dead. Maybe in a coma?"_

I let out a weary sigh.

"Hey kid what's got you down?"

"Hmm? Oh hey Chief, just… thinking about home."

"You got family somewhere?"

"No, not anymore." I reply sadly.

"I didn't know you were alone Jon."

"It's not really something I like to talk about."

She stops and thinks for a while. "There's always Vic right? You and him were pretty close, get a little contact from before all this happened."

Well not quite before for me but… maybe talking to Vic is a good idea.

"I think I'll do that, thanks Chief."

"Anytime kid."

I dial up Vic on my terminal. "Hello? Jon?"

"Yeah it's me."

"Well it's been a while since I heard from you."

"Yeah been a bit preoccupied, saving the galaxy and all that." I reply sarcastically.

"Uh huh I'm sure it was all you."

I shake my head. "Anyway it's good to see you again Vic, how are things?"

"Well boring really, just back to business as usual here, but what's up with you? You wouldn't call if you didn't have something interesting to tell me."

"Well yeah I got a few things I could tell ya about… you ever seen an M-98 Widow before?"

"That big goddam Geth rifle? Yeah I met a gun nut who had one once."

I turn the holo so that he can see my workbench. "Well this one almost took my head off, so I blew up the Geth who shot it and took it, now I need to figure out how the danm thing works."

"If I recall correctly those things have enough recoil to take yer arm off."

"Yeah that's the problem but I can't reduce the recoil without knowing how it works, No dampeners, no venting, nothing I need to know how it works first."

"Why? You yungins' think to high tech why don't you use a non-evasive recoil dampener?"

… "You're right I hadn't thought of that, maybe a recoil spring…"

"See sometimes the old stuff works better."

"Yeah yeah, I got something else to run by you, ok?"

"Hmm? Yeah shoot."

"Well there's a Krogan on the crew here and he asked me to make him something powerful that he could use one handed in close combat, I can't think of anything practical."

"Well there's your problem, if he's a Krogan it doesn't need to be practical it just has to work, think you could make a short barreled sniper or something?"

…

"Jon?"

"Sniper no shotgun, not practical… YES. Thanks Vic I'll talk to you later."

"Wait what's your-"

I immediately get to work this is going to be crazy.

* * *

><p>So it's about lunchtime the next day and I'm putting finishing touches on Wrex's project. I've done allot of thinking through all of this, most of it has been about Tali. Speaking of which I haven't seen her much since the mission. That's kind of odd she usually comes and talks to me while I'm working. I briefly ponder on this before I hear someone coming up behind me.<p>

"Oh, hello Tali I was just thinking about you actually."

"Yeah? What about me?"

"Well I haven't seen you much since Noveria and, I thought that was a little strange."

"I guess I've been thinking allot lately."

"You too eh?"

"There's allot to think about lately, Saren, the Geth, the reapers, my pilgrimage… us."

"Yeah."

"I don't think we should uhm…" She starts nervously wringing her hands.

"You see I … er I do like ehm… you but-"

I put up my hand. "I get it Tali, now's not the time for a relationship."

"Yes, and I have to go back to the Floatilla afterwards…"

"I'll miss you, as a friend."

She leans next to me. "I think we might be more than friends, but I don't think we're partners."

"What's between love and friends?"

"Something crazy."

I chuckle. "Perfect."

"So what happens next?"

"I don't know let's just see what happens."

"Just go with it huh? Yeah ok I can do that."

We sit there in a comfortable if slightly awkward silence for a bit longer before something beeps.

"Oh my parts are done."

"I should get back to work too."

"Alright see you later Tali."

I let out a tired sigh. "_Alone again alone again."_

My Omni tool opens of it's own accord bringing up the music interface. _"Well lets listen to something soft, maybe Piano Man, or something, I'm feeling down."_

I finish Wrex's gun around an hour later, and walk off to find him.

20 minutes later me and Wrex are in the cargo bay with it open and ready for target practice.

"Ok Wrex this is what I came up with."

I heft up the heavy weapon, its just about a foot long with two barrels and a large pistol grip. I hand him the weapon and he looks it over.

"What is this?"

"A shotgun… sort of, there's a thermal clip in each barrel and it fires shotgun pellets. It can only fire once and it uses up both clips."

"I can fire this with one hand?"

"You should be fine, it would mess me up though, go ahead try it."

I show him how the break action works and he readies a target.

BOOM!

"HAHAHAHA" Wrex's guaffing fills the hangar.

"I LIKE THIS, this is what I wanted."

"Hard to go wrong with a double barrel sawed off." I reply a smirk on my face.

"Heh, yes this works, thanks, I think I'll come to you again if I need a gun, you think like a Krogan."

"Thanks… I think."

"I don't have to pay you for this or anything do I?"

"What? Naw you're on the crew, that thing might save me someday."

He grunts a goes back to firing at targets. I glance back at the partially disassembled Widow on the bench.

"_Not quite… soon though." _ I stand by and watch for a little bit, then Garrus walks up.

"Spirits Jon do you make anything that's quite?"

"Where's the fun in that?" I ask sarcastically.

He chuckles. "Well sometimes you need stealth, do you even have a silencer?"

"No, they decrease power and range, I've been thinking about a way around that though, nothing yet but I'll tell you if I figure something out."

"What will you do if we have a stealth mission before then?"

"I'll get a normal silencer and aim for a headshot."

"Headshots are my thing."

"Oh? Good then you can take care of all the silenced sniping." I reply grinning.

"That's not what I meant."

"Oh so you think I can't get a headshot when I need to?"

"Is that a challenge?"

Game On…

20 minutes later, me and Garrus are in an intense sniper competition. Most of the crew has gathered and I think Joker was taking bets. Garrus is aiming faster than I am but neither of us has missed yet, but it's starting to get to real hard to hit the target.

"What round is this?" Shepard asks from behind somewhere.

"10, they're at 800 meters." Joker replies.

"And neither of them has missed?"

"Nope."

Shepard whistles.

DING

Round 11 both targets hit.

Target moved to 850 meters.

"What are the odds?"

"3-1 against Knight for up to a thousand yards."

"After a thousand?"

"6-1"

"Five hundred on Knight for a thousand yards."

"Lofty bet Commander."

"We'll see"

The only thing I can see is the target. Aim. Fire. Reload. I don't know how long it goes on for, it feels like an eternity. But I keep hitting targets. A brief pause between rounds gives me a second to think.

"_Danm, my time here has really made me a marksman; I mean I'm up against Garrus for Christ sake!"_

Another target. Aim… FIRE!

"He just nicked it!"

I watch as the target flickers and remains.

I curse under my breath when I see Garrus's target is gone.

Joker however lets out a whoop of joy.

"I WIN!"

"What range was that?" Shepard asks the target VI.

"One thousand and fifty yards."

"Ha! I still won my bet!"

After all the bets are sorted out Joker is slightly saddened having only won 300 credits, most people only bet for up to a thousand more bet on Garrus.

Me and Garrus shake hands.

"I may have won…" he says with an air of gloating. "But I'd have you at my back any day."

"And you may be a shit eating bastard, but danm if you aren't an accurate one." I reply jokingly.

That gets a few laughs from the crew as they dissipate. I head back over to my workbench and start cleaning my rifle. Tali walks over shortly.

"I bet on you, ya know."

"I'm sorry for your loss."

She chuckles. "I only bet 50 credits."

"Oh that's ok then." I reply sarcastically.

"Heh, did you really think you could beat him?"

"No, but I'll be dammed if I wasn't gunna try."

Another chuckle. "You're crazy Jon"

"Thank you."

She hangs around for a bit longer before leaving for engineering. I keep working for a while before heading up for something to eat.

When I get there, there are several people eating already. I grab some food and sit down with a few other members of the ground team.

* * *

><p>"Your shooting match with Garrus was impressive." Liara says to me across the table.<p>

"Thanks Liara, he's a danm good shot."

"A Thousand and fifty yards is no small feat of marksmanship Jon"

"Heh, yeah you're right but-"

"You know I don't get you two?" Ash interrupts loudly.

"What me and Liara?"

"No you and the Turian."

"Garrus"

"Yeah, why do you two put so much emphasis on accuracy?"

"I would assume it is because they wish to hit the target." Liara says matter of factly.

I bust out laughing. Ash just looks annoyed.

"There's no need to be that accurate though."

"How would you deal with a target that far away then?" Liara asks.

"Like a rampaging Krogan." I reply quickly.

Ash gives me a dirty look.

"What? It's true isn't it?"

Another glare.

"You know this is the same thing we fought over on Eden Prime." She replies.

"I thought that was about beating you in a skirmish?"

My next thought is abruptly cut off when she tackles me.

"Argghh, Liara help me!" I gasp.

She's just messing with me, and Liara looks utterly confused.

Shepard walks over.

"What are they doing?" Liara asks.

"They're just messing around, good for blowing off steam."

"I'll never understand humans."

"Trying to understand Ash or Knight would be impossible for any species." Garrus jokes from down the table.

I finally manage to push her off me and get back on my feet. She just slugs me in the shoulder and heads back to the cargo bay chuckling.

I look around noticing Liara and Shepard are gone.

"Where did Liara and Shepard go?"

"I think they said something about talking in private or something." Kaidan replies.

"_Go for the blue one eh Boss?" _I think to myself; now that I think about it they are together pretty often, guess I've been distracted.

"Don't see them allot down in the hold do you?" Kaidan asks.

"Nah, pretty much just if they need something."

"What do you think our next step should be?"

"What? About Saren?"

"Yeah, we don't have any more leads."

I think for a second. _"The next mission is Virmire, danm is it that time already? How am I going to tell Shepard? I need to tell him, I won't just let someone die!"_

My thoughts are interrupted by Joker calling Shepard up to the comm room.

"What do you think that's about?" Kaidan asks.

"Our next step." I reply.

I leave Kaidan sitting there.

"I gotta go, talk to you later."

"Yeah ok."

* * *

><p>-Shepard POV—<p>

I walk out of the comm room and almost don't notice Knight leaning against the bulkhead.

"Need something Knight?"

"Uh yeah can I uh talk to you in private, it's important."

"Can it wait for a minute I just got some big news from-"

"The council, about Saren."

"Uh yeah how did you know?"

He looks around nervously. "In private, it's important."

"Yeah… ok come on, is the comm room private enough?"

"Can you lock the door?"

"Yeah"

"That's fine then."

I walk back into the comm room and lock the door. Knight sits down in one of the chairs and takes a deep breath.

"Whats the craziest thing you've ever heard?" He asks.

"What?"

"The craziest thing you can think of what is it?"

"_What is he getting at? He said it was important, I know he wouldn't waste my time."_

"I don't know probably the reapers."

He lets out a hollow laugh. "That's pretty good, hard to beat that normally."

"You pride yourself on not being normal right?"

"Heh, normal is boring."

"So what's this about?"

"It's about some crazy shit that I don't fully understand, shit that I don't think _can_ be understood."

…

"I'm not from here."

"What? Of course not you're from… you never told me where you're from."

"That's because it doesn't exists."

"What do you mean doesn't exist?"

"You found me on Eden Prime two months after I first arrived here."

"What do you mean by here?"

"The year 2183 in this galaxy."

"Are you trying to tell me you're from another galaxy?"

"Not sure maybe another universe, but where I came from it was 2011 and all this-"He makes a wide gesture to everything.

"This was all a video game."

-Knight POV—

He looks a bit shocked from that, he leans back against the wall.

"I'm having a hard time believing that."

"That call you just got was from the council, it was about a garbled STG transmission that they got over an emergency channel originating from Virmire, they called you because the team was investigating Saren."

"You aren't spying on communications are you?"

"No sir."

"Have you told anyone else about this?"

"Tali"

He keys his Omni tool. "Joker could you tell Tali to come up to the comm room?"

A few minutes later there's a knock on the door, Shepard unlocks it and Tali walks in, he locks the door again as Tali walks over to us.

"He told you about this?"

"About where he's from?"

He nods.

"Yes, he knew things about me and the Quarians that no one outside the migrant fleet could have known."

He gives her a serious look.

"I trust him Shepard and he was right about Noveria."

"You knew what was on Noveria?"

"I know everything that has to do with you for the next two and a half years."

"Why tell me this now?"

"Kaidan and Ash are in danger during the next mission, one of them is supposed to die, but I won't just sit around and watch it happen, and honestly would you have believed me if I had told you sooner?"

"Maybe not, but how did you get here?"

"Your guess is good as mine, I was in my room one second then I woke up on a shuttle for Eden Prime."

"Any idea why?"

"Not really, when I first got here some kind of VI or something popped up on my Omni tool, and told me I was 'resonant' and that I was moved here to do something related to the reapers."

"Resonant?"

I just shrug.

"Knowing the future must be a terrible burden."

I look up to him. "Having to watch what I say every second, having to constantly lie to friends, knowing what's going to happen but having almost no ability to change it, knowing I don't really belong here."

"Maybe you're not from this universe, but I'll be danmed before you say you don't belong here."

I start a bit and look up to him.

"You have fought and bled fighting for the same thing we are, you have helped people on this ship selflessly, and you've told me about you're past. You belong here Knight, fighting with us, I don't pretend to know how you got here, but I'm glad you are."

"He's right you know." Tali says quietly from beside me.

I glance to her then back to Shepard. "Thanks commander." I can feel my eyes tear up a bit and quickly rub my eyes. "I think I needed that."

"So what happens on Virmire that's so important?"

For the next half an hour or so I explain what happens on Virmire and we try and think of a way around it. Nothing foolproof presents itself though.

"I'll think more about this you need to get back to work."

"Yeah, ok Commander."

I get up and begin walking towards the exit, but stop and turn to him.

"About what happens after Virmire-"

"I don't want to know. How far ahead will you be able to accurately predict the future?"

"Accurately? Well most of the next game should still be mostly the same…"

"Keep it to basics, what enemies we should expect, obstacles that sort of thing, everything else is subject to change, so it's not actionable Intel and no longer the future."

"But Shepard-"

"That's an order, I will take responsibility for the consequences, dismissed."

…

"Yes, sir" I say slowly.

Later in bed I lay awake thinking. "_Shepard's right, some things have already changed, how different is the Collector mission going to be?"_

I sigh quietly "_Heh, I just got persuaded by the Commander, had to have been a paragon interrupt in there somewhere."_

* * *

><p><strong>-*SPOILERS BLEOW*-<strong>

**A/N: Man that took a while to write, sorry about that life just gets in the way sometimes. Anyway ME3 was awesome some stuff happened that I didn't like but the ending was not what I feel most passionate about.**

**I was uber sad when Legion sacrificed himself to make his people individual (An action that is seemingly rendered pointless by the synthesis choice) and I've seen pictures of what Tali really looks like and am majorly disappointed, I mean she's just a purple person, so when thinking of Tali related to this fic? Fuck that. I will provide my own idea on what Quarians look like and it will not be like that.**

**The next chapter will include a Cameo appearance by rex3cutor for making a 3D model based off sketches of my M-12 Assault shotgun, there are links to that awesomeness in my profile. Should be a moderately short chapter and I will try my best to get it done by next week, but no promises, I cannot forsee any major obstacles but life's a bitch sometimes.**

**Commander Jane Shepard, Engineer,united all the races of the Galaxy, sacrificed herself to synthesize organinc and synthetic life, saving Garrus a seat at the bar.**

**ROCK ON! Jknight out-**

**P.S.- HEADCOLDS SUCK **


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Ok this is both part of the story and a cameo chapter for rex3cutor, he's not becoming an official squad member or anything he'll probably stick around for three chapters or so, and we'll probably meet him again in the future. **

**Well as long as I'm giving shout outs, Liege Lord always drops me a review and has given me some good ideas, So just felt it was time for him to get a shout out.**

**This is also the first chapter under the new title, so if you're confused this used to be called "A Sense of Feeling".**

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 12: The Bear<span>

The next day was one of frantic preparation, Shepard briefed the crew on our new intel and set a course for Virmire. I was down in the cargo hold working on my Widow, I was quite pleased with myself. I had just managed to lower the recoil enough that it wouldn't seriously injure me, I had also added a reinforced plate to the right shoulder of my armor for extra protection. I still had no idea how it worked but I could shoot it.

I'm about to do some target practice when the comm rings.

"Ash, Kaidan, and Knight suit up and head up to the airlock."

"_I wonder what that could be?"_

I shrug and put my gear on grabbing the Widow as well.

"_Not test like a combat test."_

My modifications prevent the Widow from collapsing to its 'holstered' state, so I put on a rifle sling and hung it over my shoulder. Me and Ash take the elevator up together, and meet Kaidan and Shepard at the airlock.

"What's up boss man?"

He turns and looks at me noticing the sniper, but I mean come on its hard not to.

"We responding to a distress call, you got that thing ready for combat?"

"I'm about to find out."

"Perfect" He says somewhat skeptically.

"Don't worry boss it's not going to explode or anything, the worst that could happen would be it dislocating my shoulder."

He opens his mouth like he's about to say something, thinks better of it, and puts his helmet on. He fiddles with something on his Omni tool before my helmet comm crackles to life.

"Knight can you hear me?"

"Yeah"

"Alright this is a private channel, I'll use it when I need to ask about the' game' alright?"

"Yeah, makes sense."

He touches the comm on his helmet before going over the squad comm.

"We're responding to a distress call from a merchant freighter _MSV Arkaden, _it's under attack by pirates. Joker is going to dock us with the airlock on the opposite side of the pirates, we move in and wipe em' out got it?"

"Yes sir" Kaidan and Ash respond.

"Aye aye boss man." I reply they both give me weird looks to which I just shrug.

"Ok Jon what can you tell me about this?" Shepard asks over private comm.

"Nothing actually this wasn't in the game…"

"This is why I asked you not to tell me more than basic info, the timelines are similar but different."

"Yeah, you're right, makes me feel a bit better."

He nods to me and Joker brings us up next to the freighter.

The airlock opens and we move quickly into the ship. A chorus of 'Clear' goes over the comm, but the sound of gunfire is prevalent. We proceed towards the bridge cautiously but the pirates seem to be concentrated there. We end up at the end of a long hallway leading from a central room up to the bridge, the pirates are in cover at various points down the hallway and are firing at a few people behind a barricade on the bridge. Most of them appear to be crewmen with pistols, but one guy is wearing armor and firing a mean looking Revenant machine gun. Suddenly I hear a POONK and one of the pirates explodes.

"He's got a n3wb tube!"

"A what?"

I shake my head. "A grenade launcher."

"Interesting, get ready to hit them, Knight let's see how bad we can scare em'."

"With pleasure." I say bringing my Widow to bear.

There's a chest high crate conveniently placed here so I put the bipod on top of it and sight in on what appears to be their commander. I aim at the center of his back and pull the trigger.

BOOM!

The shot reverberates down the hall, the commander lurches forward with a massive hole in his chest. He's dead before he hits the ground. All the pirates turn and face us. I pull the action back as all the pirates try and get in cover from both sides. A brief firefight ensues, with the pirates being cut down in a deadly pincer and eventually forced back onto their ship. We head up to the bridge as they run for it.

When we get up to the barricade the one guy in armor is slumped against the wall holding his side, and a couple people are tending to him. The captain of the ship goes up to Shepard.

"Knight, see what you can do for him." He says gesturing to the armored guy.

I just nod and head over to him. As I approach I remove my helmet, I notice the guy has an emblem of a grizzly bear on his armor. "_Must be a freelance merc."_

He's wearing a black suit of heavy armor with a digital metro camouflage pattern. I can see how he lasted this long, the armor has pockets all over it as well as a bandolier, all though most of it is empty.

The two crewmen back away a bit and let me up to him.

"My names Jonathon Knight, I'm here with Commander Shepard."

"Thomas Schüppler, I'm a mercenary."

I scan him with my Omni tool and give him some medigel. He sighs audibly as the gel takes effect but I frown looking at the scan. I keep talking to him for a few minutes until Shepard comes over.

"What's up with him Jon, he gunna be alright?"

"At this rate no, this freighter doesn't have the equipment to take care of his wounds."

"Does the Normandy?"

"The Normandy could have him patched up in a couple of days."

"Alright Mr…"

"Thomas" He replies.

I take one of his arms over my shoulder and start shuffling him back to the airlock. I get him to Chakwas, and she takes care of him. A few hours later Shepard calls me up to talk with him.

* * *

><p>We head into the med bay and see him sitting on one of the beds. Without the armor on I can get a good look at him now. He's… large, well-muscled and at least 6'3", Caucasian with short military cut brown hair.<p>

Chakwas comes over and hands Shepard a data pad, which he looks over as we approach.

"You used to be Alliance?"

"A Corporal." He replies with a somewhat anxious look.

"But you were discharged?"

"I was on a weapons development team, a test went wrong and some people died, I said it must have been sabotaged, they agreed with me." He says monotone voice.

"It wasn't me though, after I was discharged I was contacted by Cerberus. They didn't want my talents to go to waste in the Alliance."

"You refused them?"

"I figure they must have sabotaged it to try and recruit me, I don't work for terrorists."

"That sounds exactly like something Cerberus would do." I reply.

Shepard nods in agreement. "So you decided to be a merc?" Shepard asks?

"Better than working for Cerberus, and I'm not like the blue suns or anything, I do honest work."

"I would say holding out against a band of pirates pretty much single handedly is more than honest work."

"I protect people it's my job."

"You're pretty good at it too." I say.

"Hehe thanks."

"You're a weapons tech too?" Shepard asks.

"Yeah four years at GSWT."

"Isn't that where you went?" He asks looking to me.

"Yeah, never seen him though." I reply.

"Not surprising he's 27, would have been a while back that he went there."

"Still got the pistol though, danm fine weapon." He says.

"Phalanx?"

"Hell yeah."

"Got me one too."

"A fellow weapons expert eh? Haven't had a decent discussion about weapons in a long time…"

20 minutes later we're down in the cargo bay discussing weapons. He has a tricked out Revenant machine gun with a bipod, holo sight, tactical light, laser sight, and a mean looking flash hider he calls 'the meat hammer'. I'm guessing it's because it looks like a meat tenderizer with a hole in it. Ouch. Besides that it has lots of internal performance modifications. He's also got a custom Viper sniper rifle painted black, and of course the Phalanx.

"That is not a sniper, that's, that's… a cannon?" He says staring at my Widow.

"I get that a lot, what it is for sure is amazing."

"Heh I bet I prefer the Revenant for most encounters though."

"Kill them with an ungodly amount of bullets?"

"Accurate, ungodly amount of bullets."

"Hehe, naw I just need one shot, one BIG shot."

We go about trading designs, upgrades, and other specs. He gives me the design for his under barrel grenade launcher, and I give him the design for my RPG. I've got several new upgrades I can perform now, so I've got the machine busy tooling parts. Shepard eventually calls Tom up to the briefing room, supposedly to talk to him about our mission. I decide to grab a bite to eat, and have a pleasant conversation with Liara about Asari culture, I in turn tell her about ancient human history, the Mongols, the Ottomans, Vikings so on and so forth. Most of the crew is in the mess hall eating lunch or relaxing when Shepard comes down with Tom.

"Alright listen up everyone, me and Tom have had a discussion about his predicament on our ship." He waits to make sure he has everyone's attention by now.

"Since we don't have time to drop him off anywhere he will be coming to Virmire with us as a temporary member of the ground team."

Kaidan speaks up. "How do we know we can trust him Commander?"

"I've had a long talk with him trust ME, we can trust him."

"Fair enough Commander."

"Any other questions?" Shepard asks.

Garrus raises his hand. "Can I look at your sniper?"

Shepard just shakes his head. "Get some rest people we arrive at Virmire early tomorrow morning."

* * *

><p>Later in the cargo hold…<p>

Garrus, Tom, and I are sitting around my station talking about guns. Well they are I'm doing work, putting in new mods, doing repairs, ect…

"So Tom where are you from?" Garrus asks.

"Germany" He replies.

"I've never heard of the planet."

"It's a country on Earth, Garrus." I say without turning from my work.

"Oh uhm what's it like in Germany? Is it different from most places on Earth?"

"Germany is a small country in the middle of Europe, in the south there are the Alps, and the Baltic Sea in the north, in between there are beautiful countryside's, and forests. Huge sprawls of farmland to moderns skyscraper skylines, it's got over 1500 years of history, in a wide range of effects, great poets like Goethe ,and Shiller, and the best beer on Earth." He says that with a smile. "But for me I love it best because its home, I haven't seen it in years though." He says the last part with a sigh.

"I'm from Michigan, it's flat, cold in the winter, and hot in the summer." I say jokingly.

"Heheh, when was the last time you were home?" he asks.

"About a year ago… seems like so long ago…" I reply sadly.

Garrus speaks up suddenly. "Home is where you go back to when you win, we can go home when the reapers are dead."

"True, We have to work together to defend our homes." Tom says.

"Yeah…"

Late in the ships night cycle…

I'm sitting at my bench in the hold, no one else is in the cargo bay. Tom went off and introduced himself to the rest of the crew after talking with me and Garrus. I think most of the crew accepted him well enough. I'm fiddling with some parts not really doing much of anything. I hear light steps on the floor behind me, I turn around and see Tali walking up.

"You should get some sleep Jon."

"So should you."

"That's where I was going."

"Oh, I'll go up in a bit."

"Ok, what's wrong?"

I let out a short laugh, "_Damn she's good"_

"Thinking about home."

"Aren't we all?"

"Heh, yeah at least you know where yours is." I reply jokingly.

She just shakes her head. "Come on Jon, I'm sure there's a way for you to get home."

"Maybe"

She puts a hand on my shoulder. "Til' then you'll just have to deal with this." She says gesturing to the Normandy.

"I think I'll manage."

"Come on big day tomorrow."

I get up and we head towards the elevator. "Yeah I hope Shepard has a plan, I haven't been able to think of anything."

"I've never known Shepard _not _work something out."

"True enough."

"What do you think of our new crew member?"

"Tom? He's a good guy, has some nice weapons too, he should be able to help us on Virmire."

"He was very nice to me, it good to know there are more good people out there than just the ones on this ship."

"heh, well good night Tali."

"Night Jon."

I slowly walk into my room and climb into bed. "_Beginning of the end tomorrow, here goes noth- no I've got a little bit more than nothing now."_

Here goes something.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Alright so that concludes the introduction for rex3cutor's cameo character, I gave him this cameo because he made and absolutely amazing 3D model of my M-12 Assault shotgun based off some sketches I had on Deviant Art, A link to his profile is on my profile page here, so if you want to see amazing 3D models of his revenant, viper, or my shotgun head over there, he's also got models for several other ME weapons so lots of good stuff there.**

**So next chapters Virmire, the beginning of the end for Resonance Effect, but more on that later for now thanks for all the faves and alerts and reviews and just for all the people who read this, you guys are the best!**

**-Jknight ROCK ON!**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Danm I'm sorry this took so long there was a lot of stuff going on recently. I won't bore you with the grizzly details but one of my AP classes is down and the other one soon to follow so that's good for writing. **

**Any way I've had a bit of writers block for this chapter too, it's important for it to sound just right. But taking suggestion from other writers I'm going to start another story, just to write when I get writers block, this still comes first but more on that after the chapter.**

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 13: Dreams are stranger than fiction<span>

_I'm standing on a grated platform, brass clockwork machinery spreads in every direction around me. Only one path lies open along the catwalk. I walk on, eventually returning to the large area with the gear in the middle, it's exactly the same as I left it last time. Smooth black with ice blue digital lines. I walk up to the gear and touch it, when I do it lets out a pulse of blue energy, it fades into the distance seeming to have done nothing, but after a short while the little monitor thing I met when I first arrived here floats over to me._

"_Greetings resonant."_

"_Uhhh…"_

_The gear suddenly sinks into the pedestal it was resting on and the small circular area around it begins to descend. It takes me a second to realize it's an elevator._

"_Where are we going?" I ask._

"_Last you were here you proved that you were truly resonant, now you will go to meet Spark."_

"_Who?"_

"_You will see, she has deemed you ready to learn some things."_

"FINALLY some explanation." I think to myself.

"_I am her assistant, you may call me Cog."_

"_Uhm ok."_

_On closer examination of Cog he is less like the Monitor than I first thought, he is made of a brass colored metal and I can see intricate clockwork mechanisms between some pieces of his outer shell. The elevator moves silently downward, it eventually comes to a stop at another catwalk. As I step out there are six huge pistons, three on either side of me each as large as a building. Further down massive gears turn beneath me. At the end of the catwalk there is a large circular area filled with a huge variety of control devices, valves, knobs, levers, buttons, screens, and more occupy control panels around the room. The far wall has a large bank of strange monitors, while the machinery appears clockwork the screens are holographic and appear to be touch sensitive. In front of these monitors there is a woman with her back to me, she appears to be clad completely in an intricate metal dress, when she turns to face me however I can see she is MADE out of clockwork machinery. Two soft yellow circles for eyes, her face is made of several intricate plates that shift as her expression changes, her garments are made of interlocking plates as well, and are decorated with beautiful steampunk scrollwork. As I approach she smiles and sets down a data pad she had been holding._

"_Welcome resonant, to your ethereal plane."_

…

"_My what?"_

"_Your ethereal plane, every person has their own unique plane. It is shaped by that person's personality, their thoughts, actions, and motivations, change what it looks like and even some of the things that happen here."_

"_And mine is a giant clock because…?"_

"_Hmm, you are a thinker, an artist, a tactician, a bookworm, and a gamer. These and millions of other characteristics add up to the expanse around you."_

"_It's certainly impressive."_

"_Indeed but where are my manners? My name is Spark."_

_I nod. "So what are you? Does everyone have something like you?"_

"_No, many but not all, I am not created solely by you, my essence comes from somewhere beyond."_

"_Care to clarify on that?"_

"_I cannot, that is all I know."_

"_That figures but, let's not dwell on what we don't know what can you tell me?"_

"_Yes, come sit I expect you have many questions I will answer what I can."_

_I follow her down a side passage onto a wide balcony, there is a table with two chairs. The view is incredible, machinery, churning, steaming, and glinting into the distance._

_I slowly sit down, and am slightly surprised when Spark sits as well, I would have thought the metal dress would have prevented this action._

"_Ok, uhm I don't even know where to begin…"_

"_The beginning is usually a suitable spot." She replies with a smirk._

"_Indeed, so were you the one who brought me here?"_

"_Yes, I facilitated your transfer to this dimension."_

"_Why?"_

"_It was the first task ever set before me, I do not know how to explain it, but it seemed as if the universe itself gave me an order."_

"_I suppose that would be a difficult thing to deny."_

"_Yes, as to the specific reason why you were chosen, I can only theorize."_

"_Oh? Darn."_

"_But perhaps my theories will shed some light."_

"_Alright go on then."_

"_Transferring someone from one universe to another is an extremely arduous process, and the mere shock of it happening can cause the brain to shut down."_

"_So I could have died?"_

"_It was… possible, but" She says holding up a hand to silence me. "I believe this is one of the reasons you were chosen, your mind is very open, accepting, creative, this type of mindset makes such a transfer much easier."_

"_I suppose that makes sense, but there must be other people like that."_

"_Yes, but how many open minded artists do you know with advanced knowledge of battlefield tactics, military structure, and the rigors of warfare?"_

"_That… that is a fairly good point."_

"_These are my theories, there are likely other reasons you were chosen but, these are the best reasons I can think of. Besides you may not have been the first choice others may have attempted to transfer and failed."_

"_I wonder how far down the line I was…"_

"_It is not important, we cannot know if that happened and there is nothing we can do for them."_

"_True"_

"_What is your next question?"_

"_Well I suppose the next step would be this resonant business, what does that mean?"_

"_It is not necessarily uncommon to resonate with something, but to truly resonate completely with something is far less common, you have a special affinity for advanced technology, you are able to manipulate and understand things that should be well beyond your grasp, I believe this specific resonance is another reason you were chosen."_

"_So is that why some things have activated for me and no other people?"_

"_Yes"_

"_So why does it shock me?"_

"_That I do not know, it is some type of synthesis error."_

"_A synthesis error?"_

"_Yes, something is not connecting correctly when you try and use your abilities, this error is expressed as a shock."_

"_Are these abilities also what causes my Omni tool to act strangely?"_

"_No, that would be me."_

"_You? Why are you randomly causing my Omni tool to play music?"_

"_It is not random, I play whatever you need to hear, something to lift your spirits, something to inspire."_

"_You're manipulating me?"_

"_I am a part of you!"_

_Her sudden outburst makes me realize something that I have been too caught up to notice. She has gone through everything I have._

"_You're right I'm sorry, you're experiencing everything I am, but you have little ability to change things."_

"_Yes… I'm glad you understand."_

_She stands and looks out to over the plane. "All your emotions, all your feelings, all your pains… I feel them too, I am part of you."_

…

"_Kind of strange."_

"_When have you ever shied away from the strange?"_

"_Never… so do you know why we had to be transferred to this universe?"_

_She sits back down. "I'm not sure, there must have been some kind of disturbance in this universe that required our uhm… uniqueness. I do know that your powers would not have manifested in our previous universe."_

"_Hmmm… odd, but do you know what happened to me in our universe?"_

"_No… you may have died, disappeared, anything I have no idea."_

"_Yeah? Alright I was kind of hoping you would know."_

_We sit in silence for a while. I think up some more questions to ask Spark, but just before I voice them she speaks._

"_Our time is up, I would have liked to have talked longer but it will have to wait for next time."_

"_When will that be?"_

_She just shrugs at me._

_I just give her this 'Really?' look, _then my eyes open and I'm staring at the ceiling of the Normandy.

I slowly get out of bed and head down for a shower. The warm water helps wake me up and I go over my conversation with spark.

"_This is crazy… I feel like a character in a book or something… maybe a fan fiction I dunno. I always thought my life was boring but I'm not sure that I needed THIS much excitement."_

"_Well there's nothing I can do might as well just go with it."_

* * *

><p>After the shower I grab some food in the cafeteria, I sit down across from a slowly waking Garrus.<p>

"Mornin' sunshine."

He looks up confused for a second. "That's a joke isn't it?"

"Your wit and perception astound me." I reply sarcastically.

"Hey that's not fair it's a human saying."

"Fine fine, so what's up?"

He turns and looks up at the ceiling.

"You not se-"

"Gotcha."

I roll my eyes at him.

"I was making sure the Mako was ready for the mission last night, you?"

"Checked over all my weapons and armor, as well as all the squad's weapons."

"Sounds like a long night."

"Tali kicked me out of the cargo bay when she went up to bed."

"Hehe nobody works later than her."

I chuckle and keep eating. After a bit Shepard comes down and gets some food as well.

"So what's the plan boss?" I ask.

"A ground team has to go in first and take down an AAA gun so the Normandy can land at the Salarian camp." Shepard replies.

"So who's on the ground team?" Garrus asks.

"I'm taking you Ash and Wrex, but I expect everyone to be suited up and ready."

"Alright I'll be ready if you need me." I reply.

The Normandy whips into action as we near Virmire. The ground team members are in the Mako, and I'm over at my workbench suited up with my helmet still off. Garrus gives me a wave before sinking down into the turret. The PA comes to life.

"Drop in three… two… one… drop."

"Nice shot Joker we're heading out."

The cargo bay doors close and the rest of the crew congregate in the cargo bay. Tali and I go over some weapons at my workbench, Wrex appears to be talking to Tom, and Kaidan and Liara are over by the elevator, a nervous calm permeates the air.

The Normandy shakes every now and then from AAA fire but Joker prevents us from ever taking anything more than a dusting on the shields. All my weapons are ready but I can't stop myself from fingering the Widow in my hands. Tali seems nervous too wringing her hands together.

"I'm worried."

"I can tell."

She stops and looks at her hands.

"Can't even see my face but you can read me like a book… That is how that expression goes right?"

I laugh "Hehe yeah that's how it goes."

We sit in silence for a while longer before Joker comes on over the PA.

"AAA guns are down but Shepard is requesting a drop off, apparently the Mako needs a tire, Knight get ready."

"Roger that Joker."

I push myself off the bench and slip my helmet on. Tali Helps me roll a tire over to the ramp and hands me a small toolkit as well.

"Alright my time to shine."

"Good luck and don't do anything _too_ crazy ok?"

"hehe no promises." I reply sarcastically.

She punches me in the shoulder as the cargo bay doors open. I kick the tire and it rolls down the ramp and into the water about 20 feet from the Mako, I drop off the end of the ramp a few seconds later and land on the ground a few feet below.

"Somebody call for a spare?"

"Yeah yeah come on let's get this thing going." Garrus replies.

We get the tire swapped out continue towards the Salarian camp. I get in the back with Ash.

"Sup' Chief?"

"Just waiting for some more action."

"I don't think there will be any shortage of action, not here."

"_I really hope Shepard has a plan…"_

"Gate up ahead Commander." Garrus says from up in the turret.

"Light em' up." Shepard replies.

And he does, the cannon thumps out a round, and the machinegun chatters away.

"I can't get at the rest of them, they're hunkered down."

"Pile out, Garrus cover us from the turret."

I climb out the back, widow in hand and crouch into cover nearby. I scan the top level and see the Geth are all crouched down in good cover. The radio in my helmet crackles to life.

"See anything Knight?" Shepard asks.

"Nah they're all hiding."

"Alright Garrus cover us, MOVE UP."

Garrus lets loose with the machinegun just to keep them in cover as we move over to the ramp. I sling the rifle onto my back and pull out my shotgun instead. Shepard points to himself and Wrex then up the ramp. Ash and I bring up the rear. Wrex and Shepard engage the targets at the top of the ramp, once they're clear Ash and I take the far side of the hallway while Shep and Wrex are on the other side of the median in the middle of the room. The Geth appear to have retreated back into the control room however. We stack up on either side of the hallway. I peek around the corner and see the control terminal before I duck out of the way of a hail of gunfire.

"How should we do this?" I ask.

Wrex just moves over grabbing a grenade from his belt.

"Wait no do-"

He whips the grenade down the hallway, it's followed shortly by an explosion.

"I hope that console still works." I say in a moderately angry voice.

"Oops" Wrex says

We move down the hallway, all the Geth are dead but the terminal looks a bit beat up.

"Yeah that figures, I'll try and sort this out." I say walking over to the damaged console.

I flip my mic over to me and Shep's private channel.

"I wanted to test something anyway."

"A new device or something?"

"No, it's … a bit more complicated than that."

I start sifting through the terminals interface, as I thought it's too damaged to get the gate open.

"_Here we go"_

I place my hand firmly on the terminal and try to think- ZAP!

I yank my hand away shaking it violently and curse under my breath.

A deep rumble sounds and the gatehouse shudders a little bit.

"Hey the gate just opened, we're good to go." Garrus says over the comm.

We start heading back to the Mako and Shepard comes up next to me.

"That's just like on Therum."

"Yeah, I'll explain after the mission what I know about this _ability_ but for now just know that I can manipulate machinery."

"Should be useful, if strange."

I just chuckle.

* * *

><p>We get back in the Mako and get to the Salarian camp where the Normandy is already waiting. A few of the crew are on the beach. Tali waves to me as I climb out of the Mako. Shepard heads over to talk to Captain Kirahhe, and Tali and I stand on the beach.<p>

"This planet is beautiful." Tali says.

"Yeah, it resembles the Caribbean back on Earth… not that I ever went there."

"Then the Caribbean looks like Virmire because you visited this place first."

"Heheh yeah."

We sit in a comfortable silence for a while before a commotion announces Wrex finding out about the Genophage cure. We walk over and see Wrex angrily arguing with Shepard and Kirahhe. He angrily walks off passing by us.

"What was that about?" Tali asks when we get close.

"There's a cure for the Genopahge in Sarrens base, He's using it to breed an army of Krogan, but we have to destroy it." Shepard replies.

"I can see why he would be upset." Tali says.

"I'll go talk to him, Knight go make sure everyone's ready."

"Aye aye boss."

Shepard moves off towards Wrex and I head off to check on everyone else.

I put some determination into my walk. _"For better or for worse here we go, into the gates of hell, through the valley of death, and into the unknown, but Shepard will get us there… and I'll help."_

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Ok so that's finally done, I apologize it took so long but there it is. Anyhow the other story that I mentioned before is something I would write for whenever I get stuck with this one. The story is from the point of view of a Geth OC that is sent out with Legion to investigate Commander Shepard. I haven't completely sorted it out in my head yet but you can expect chapter one for that sometime in the nearish future so if you want to know when that comes out add me to your author alerts or wait until I mention it in the author's note for the next chapter of RE after I write it. And if anyone can think of a good name for an engineer type Geth, drop me a PM or put it in a review, I'll make sure to mention you as the creator of any name I decide to use, but I don't want something like sparky or something blatantly obvious like that, THANKS.**

**-Jknight **


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: Well that took a while didn't it, although that seems to be becoming the norm. I apologize for how long it takes me to update, but I'm in the last week of school so things are pretty hectic. Not to mention this was kind of luke-warn as far as writing goes, so in order to put in the effort you deserve it took me a bit. I don't know why I wasn't as into the Virmire mission as I have been with others but there you have it. I am however excited to write the Ilos and Citadel missions wrapping up RE1. **

**So on with the chapter.**

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 14: Resonant's Effect<span>

"You good on ammo?"

"Yeah, I made sure to load up before I got off the Normandy."

"Alright good, we're moving soon Tali."

"Alright Jon."

I stop and look over to where Shepard is talking to Wrex, he hasn't raised his gun yet so that's good. I've briefly checked with most of the squad now to make sure they're ready. Shepard maintains a calm face even when Wrex pulls his gun on him. I cringe a little when I realize it's the double barrel he's pointing at Shepard, but then Shepard says something and Wrex just deflates, he actually looks a little ashamed. Shepard puts a hand on his arm and says something else, Wrex nods and is back to his old self. Shepard walks over to me.

"You check in with everyone?" He asks.

"Everyone but Wrex." I reply.

He nods.

"What did you say to him?"

"I told him what he needed to hear."

I just nod. "You have a knack for that."

He chuckles. "Alright looks like Kirrahe is ready, come on."

…

"So you need Ash or Kaidan?"

"Yes, need Alliance officer to lead third team." Kirrahe replies.

Shepard thinks for a moment. "Ash you go with Kirrahe."

"Commander I-"

"I said Ash Kaidan, we need you for the bomb and Ash for the heavy combat."

Kaidan looks like he still wants to go, but accepts Shepard's judgment.

"What do you think Jon?" Shepard asks after the others have wandered off.

"I don't like this, do you have a plan?"

"I have an idea. Hey Tom!"

Tom looks over and Shepard waves him over.

"You need something Commander?"

"You were Alliance before right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"You still remember Alliance protocol?"

"I had a drill sergeant from hell, I will never forget."

He smiles. "Good, you're going with Ash ,and Kirrahe."

He salutes. "Yes sir." He then jogs over to Ash and they start prepping gear.

"You think that'll help?"

"Better than nothing. Alright you're on Shadow team with me."

"Aye aye boss."

* * *

><p>We jump down into the shallow water around the side of the facility. Garrus and Liara are here with me and the Commander. I pull my Widow out and pull the bolt, ready to fire. We move swiftly but quietly forward until we reach the first checkpoint.<p>

"Garrus, Knight scope it out."

We nod an affirmative. I look down the scope.

"Several regular troopers and a Juggernaut." Garrus says.

"There's a dish up top too, might want to take it out." I say.

"Alright, you two take the Juggernaut, Liara throw a singularity in there, on my mark."

"Mark."

Garrus's shot goes off just before mine, his round impacts the shields and takes them down, my round punches right through the upper right of its chest. The juggernaut jerks and falls over. Liara's singularity impacts a moment later lifting the troopers and some other random objects into the air, Shepard runs forward firing bursts of assault rifle fire at the floating Geth, Garrus and I keep sniping at the Geth. Only one still remains alive when Liara's singularity wears off, only to receive a burst of assault rifle fire from Shepard as it gets up.

"Good work everyone, knight, take out the dish."

"Roger that."

I grab a grenade from my belt and Select 'magnetic' from the grenade interface. A loose throw sticks the grenade to the center of the dish, the explosion firmly placing it out of commission.

"It looks like their orbital comms are down hit them now!" Ash's voice comes over the comm.

We continue forward to the next checkpoint.

"Just about the same as the last checkpoint." Garrus says.

"Same plan then." Shepard replies.

I works just about the same too. As we move through the base Shepard stops at a terminal.

"This looks important, Knight, see what you can do."

"Alright."

I flip through a few programs on the terminal before coming up with an idea, a few seconds of tinkering and we're set.

"The automated turrets have stopped firing!" Ash's' voice comes over the comm.

"No someone's overloaded them! They're going to explode!" A few muffled explosions filter through the comm soon after. Shepard just shoots me a devious smirk.

"Nice one let's keep moving."

We reach the walkways around the facility, and keep moving forward. We hear over the radio that the fliers have returned for refueling and Shepard has us look for the refueling station. We find it shortly after. Firing at the fuel tank causes it to explode and take out most of the fliers, we mop up the rest and move on. A brief fight outside the facility before we move into the compound proper. We're in between an inner and exterior wall. Garrus moves over to a console.

"We could activate alarms on the other side of the base to draw some heat off this side, but I don't know if the salarians could take it."

"Don't activate the alarms, we can deal with whatever's in there." Shepard says bringing his hand up to the side of his helmet. "Which is what exactly?"

"Prime, and some indoctrinated Salarians." I reply.

Shepard opens the door and we move into a large cargo area. A few salarians look over at us with a dead stare. They start shambling over towards us, some of them start firing pistols.

"Put them out of their misery." Shepard says quietly.

A few bursts of assault rifle fire are all it takes, but once the Salarians are gone Geth troopers start moving in. I duck behind a crate and return fire, the Avenger rattles out its clip worth of rounds, and quickly reload, briefly noting I _really_ need a better assault rifle. The troopers go down fairly quick and we continue deeper into the storage area, as we come around a corner a prime steps off a hub. An angry synthetic growl is all the warning we get before is starts blasting away with its pulse cannon. Everyone scrambles for cover. One of the shots hits my shield and nearly knocks me off my feet while also draining half of my shields.

"_Shit these guys don't screw around!"_

He just keeps firing away but there's only one of him and four of us, I use overload and take a chunk out of his shields before just pouring on assault rifle fire, everyone else does the same and the prime goes down fairly quick.

The next area is the prison block. Looking into the cells some have a couple salarians, some have one, and some have bodies. We move over to a cell that has a relatively sane looking salarian, Shepard lets him out. We put another cell full of salarians down, nothing left but husks.

"This is sick, these people have nothing left." I say.

"There's nothing we can do but avenge them." Shepard says looking straight into my eyes.

I nod. After the prison block we take an elevator up to a research lab. A big Krogan turns towards us… and charges.

"Shit, MOVE" Shepard shouts.

I dive to the side into a piece of machinery, the scanner stops and a husk shambles out. "Aww come on."

I don't have time to pull my gun before the husk grabs me, I wrestle with it for a minute before I shove it away and grab my knife. I take a big overhead swing and bring the blade down onto the top of its skull. The blade breaks through with a dull crunch and the husk falls over dead. I put my knife away and pick my assault rifle back up. The others have finished off the Krogan and other husks.

"Are you alright Jon?" Liara asks me.

"Yeah I'm fine, don't worry." I reply.

I nod to Shepard, and we move over to the door at the end of the room. Rana Thanoptis cowers behind the desk in the next room. She opens up Saren's lab for us before Shepard tells her to run.

"You enjoyed that, commander." Garrus says.

Shepard just smirks. We take the elevator up and step out into Saren's lab. Shepard notes the Prothean beacon down below. The room is dark, not just in a physical sense either the rooms seems to be looming over you, I grip my assault rifle a little tighter and follow Shepard down to the beacon.

He steps up to it and it activates giving him the next part of the vision. That looks painful. As soon as it's over Liara is at his side. He gets up and reassures Liara. We move to the display at the end of a long platform above the beacon. A red hologram activates, Soverighn.

"You are not Saren." This simple statement seems laden with pitiless hate, and distaste.

"What is that, a VI or something?" Garrus asks.

"Simple beings of flesh and blood, you touch my mind fumbling in ignorance, incapable of understanding."

"Not a VI."

"There is a realm of existence so far beyond your own you cannot even imagine it. I am beyond your comprehension, I am Soverighn."

"This isn't just some reaper ship, It _IS _a reaper."

"Reaper' a label created by the Protheans to give voice to their destruction, in the end what they chose to call us is irrelevant, we simply… are."

"The Protheans vanished 50,000 years ago you couldn't have been there!" Liara says.

"Organic life is nothing but a genetic mutation, your lives are measured in years and decades, you wither, and die. We are eternal, the pinnacle of evolution, and existence. Before us you are nothing. Your extinction is inevitable, we are the end of everything." He turns his attention to me. "You, your presence here changes nothing, we will sweep over you and eradicate you just like every civilization before you."

My blood turns to ice in my veins. "_He knows". _I swallow hard, but try to not look to shaken.

"There is an entire galaxy of races united and ready to face you." Shepard says.

"Confidence born of ignorance, the cycle cannot be broken."

"Cycle what cycle?" Liara asks.

"The pattern has repeated itself more times than you can fathom, the Protheans were not the first civilization to fall, they did not create the citadel, they did not forge the mass relays, they merely found them, just as your civilizations have. The legacy of my kind."

"Why would you build the Mass relays, just for us to find them?"

"Your civilizations are based on the technology of the mass relays, our technology. By finding them you develop along the paths we desire. We impose order on the chaos of organic life, you exist because we allow it, and you will end because we demand it."

"We will stop you! Nothing is invincible, nothing lasts forever."

"Your words are as empty as your future, I am the vanguard of your destruction, this exchange is over."

And with that the windows in the room blow out, the computers burst into flame, and a tremor nearly nocks me off my feet.

"Uh, Commander. That reaper ship just pulled a U-turn that would have sheared any of our ships in half. We need to go, like now." Joker says over the comm.

"Alright come on, let's get to the bomb site." Shepard says.

We move back down through the elevator, and across a bridge that was raised before. We get in a few brief fights with Geth and a few Krogan but nothing major. We finally arrive at the bombsite and the Salarian team radios that the AA guns are offline. Joker brings the Normandy over and Kaidan and two techs walk off with the bomb. The comm crackles to life.

"Commander we're taking a lot of fire at the AA tower!"

"Do you need help?" Shepard asks.

"I don't think so, but if you could meet us halfway that would be great."

"Right we're on the way. Liara, Wrex, and Tali stay here guard the bombsite. Knight, Garrus you're with me."

Wrex and Tali jump off the Normandy and together with Liara get into defensive positions around the bombsite.

The rest of us move off towards the AA tower, shortly after leaving the area a Geth drop ship flies overhead.

"Drop ship headed your way Kaidan!" Shepard says over the radio.

"It's already here! But well be fine for a while get the Salarian team back here!"

"Alirght, call us if you need help."

"Roger that commander."

* * *

><p>Half way to the AA tower we stop. We're up on a wall that has a long ramp connecting to a lower area leading to the Tower. Me and Garrus pull out our rifles and set up, Shepard also grabs his sniper.<p>

"Alright Ash we're in position, where are you?"

"Just on the other side of the gate!" As she says that a large gate at the far end of the area opens, and people start rushing through, the last person being Tom unleashing a relentless stream of Revenant fire. I look down the scope to cover them just in time to see Tom knock the legs out from under a Geth and proceed to beat its face in with the nasty meat hammer muzzle break on his gun.

As they fall back towards us we start firing on the now bottle necked Geth coming through the gate. Garrus is dropping headshots left and right, Shepard is holding his own, and I have gotten a couple double kills. The team makes it up the ramp and we start falling back towards the bombsite. Just as we arrive Saren pops up on his hover… thingy. Along with several large Geth.

A frantic firefight breaks out with no intermission to talk. I pull out my Shotgun for this fight and start firing. The area quickly turns into a chaotic mess of close combat, Shepard is off fighting Saren over there somewhere, Garrus just gun whipped a trooper and that hunter is about to shoot Ash. OH SHIT.

"ASH!" I start running over to her, but I'm too far away. Time seems to slow as the hunter pulls his shotgun up, Ash reacts to slowly, and I see it dawn on her face what's about to happen.

Just before he fires Tom tackles the hunter, the shotgun goes off, blood and bits of bone go flying through the air, Ash screams. Time suddenly re-asserts itself as I crouch down next to Ash, her entire right arm was blown to bits by the shotgun blast. I quickly apply some medi-gel to try and stem the bleeding. Shepard is suddenly next to me.

"COME ON WE GOTTA GO!" He yells over the gunfire.

I pick Ash up wounded soldier style on her left side, and start moving towards the Normandy's cargo bay. Everyone falls back with us giving covering fire, Tom's Revenant loudest and longest among them. We finally get inside, and the cargo bay closes as we accelerate out of the atmosphere. We quickly get Ash up to Dr. Chakwas, only after she starts tending to Ash does someone realize that I'M bleeding. A quick check shows it's a light wound, just some shrapnel in my left arm, but I need to take care of it regardless. Its good Chakwas isn't the only medical personnel on board, she is the only doctor, but we have a few medics and nurses. The med bay quickly fills up as the after battle adrenaline rush wears off and people realize they've been hit. Wrex is the only member of the ground team who doesn't show up, which isn't surprising. It turns out I've got a couple light wounds, there are several bullets wedged into my armor as well, one in one of my shoulder pieces, another in my chest plate, and a few shotgun pellets in my thigh plate, they're going to leave nasty bruises but I'll live. The medics usher us out of the med bay as soon as we're taken care of to give Doctor Chakwas room.

It's around an hour later that I find myself waiting in the mess hall to see how Ash is. I'm bandaged up, and washed up, but I haven't eaten anything, to anxious. Shepard sits down next to me, and we just sit in silence for a while.

"They're both still alive." Shepard says.

"Yeah…"

"If you wouldn't have told me about… you, she would probably be dead right now."

"Maybe…"

"No, knowing about what was happening caused me to send Tom with Ash, you saved her."

"This seems like a hollow victory, she can't fight anymore. Prosthetics are good, but not combat worthy."

"But she is alive, I'm sure Ash will find another way to contribute, outside of combat."

"Yeah, but the military was her life."

"I know, but you've given her a chance to live for something else, a chance she wouldn't have had otherwise."

I sit in silence, staring down the floor, trying to process Shepard's wisdom. Doctor Chakwas come out of the med bay a short while later. I stand up quickly, but Doctor Chakwas holds up her hands.

"She's fine but I want her to rest right now. You need to rest yourself, you shouldn't go this long after such a strenuous battle."

"I just wanted to-"

"I know, don't worry about her, now go get some rest. You too." She says pointing at Shepard.

"Alright, goodnight Doctor." I say turning towards the crew quarters.

"Goodnight."

As I lay down the day finally catches up with me, my body finally winning the battle with my mind, and I immediately fall asleep.

I wake up the morning after, and _very _slowly make my way into the mess hall, disheveled and half-awake I sit down with some breakfast.

"Are you ok Jon?" Tali asks somewhat tiredly herself.

I look at her. "My body is _pain._"

"_Ouch"_

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So there you go Ash is alive but out of action, I thought that was a good compromise between one dying (which I didn't really want), and both living (Which I thought was too good). But the effects of that will come up later. Next chapter will be the trip back to the Citadel and time on the Citadel before their escape will serve as an interaction chapter of sorts. And at the end I'm kind of leaning towards going to Omega with Garrus, I believe I could come up with some good chapters within that primary idea, BUT I know this has been done before (MTM is awesome) but if any of you have anything to say about that I'll listen.**

**So until next time Knight out.**


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Calm before the storm

The next morning after breakfast I went to check on how Ash was doing. I walked into the med bay, Ash was in the far bed next to Chakwas's desk. She turns toward me, as I walk down and sit on the bed next to her.

"How are you chief?"

"Well it doesn't hurt right now if that's what you mean." She says sourly.

I sigh. What do you say to someone after that kind of incident? What can I say? As my mind wrestles with that, we sit in silence. She's just staring up at the ceiling. Shepard walks in to the med bay after a few minutes.

"Hey boss." I say quietly.

He nods to me. "How are you Ash?"

"It doesn't hurt… for now." She says.

"That's not what I meant." He replies.

"I'm useless Shepard, what's a soldier without the ability to fight?"

"An asset on the homefront."

She lets out a hollow laugh. "Yeah, sure I don't know anything else Shepard."

"Then this is a good chance for you to learn." He states simply.

She doesn't say anything for a while.

"He's right you know. Where's that stubborn marine that I met on Eden Prime eh?" I say lightly taunting.

"I just… I don't know what to do."

"You can get a prosthetic on the Citadel, it may not be combat worthy, but I'm sure you'll figure out something to do." Shepard replies confidently.

"Yeah, thanks guys."

"Anytime Chief." I reply standing up to leave.

Shepard comes out with me.

"So what's next Jon?"

"The council will lock us down on the Citadel, wanting to wait for Saren to attack."

"Figures."

"Heh, but Anderson will help us break out, and then it's off to Ilos."

He nods slowly.

"Alright Jon, make sure you're ready."

I give him a salute. "Aye aye Boss."

He cracks a grin before moving off. I head over to the elevator and meet Liara just as she's about to get in. We step in together.

"Hello Jon, did you speak with Ashley?"

"Yeah, she's taking it pretty hard."

"Her family has a long line of military service correct?"

"Yeah, it's in her blood, I'm worried about her."

"We all are, but from the brief amount of time I've known her, I'm sure she'll be alright."

"She's too stubborn not to do something."

"Exactly."

The elevator door opens and I head over to my workbench. Nodding to Wrex as I walk by.

"Knight"

"Wrex"

I smile to myself before getting to work. Checking over all my weapons and armor, I find myself done less than an hour later. "_Man, that used to take a lot longer." _A loud bang and frantic cursing in an unfamiliar language catch my attention. I sidle over to the Mako that Garrus is currently lying under.

"Need some help bud?" I ask.

He pushes out from under the Mako to look up at me with a pleading face.

"Please."

"You know all you had to do was ask." I reply getting down on the opposite side of the Mako and crawling under it.

"I thought you'd be busy with your weapons, or Ash." He replies carefully.

"Ash is tough she'll get through." I reply.

"She won't be fighting with us anymore will she?"

"No"

"Darn, she's a damn fine soldier."

"Yeah, yeah she is, anyway what do you need me to do?" I ask.

He points out a few things, and I help out to the best of my ability.

"That was some pretty colorful language you used a minute ago." I say casually.

"Heard that did you? How much of it did you understand?"

"I understood that it was cursing, and very thorough." I reply with a chuckle.

"Well you're not wrong." He replies sarcastically.

We go on chatting amicably for a while, I even learn a few Turian curses, BONUS!

"I didn't realize this was how males bonded." At the sudden interruption me and Garrus both jerk and smack our heads on the underside of the Mako.

"ACH!"

"Rakk!"

I grab my injured fore head and look over to the front of the Mako where Tali is giggling.

"How long have you been there?" Garrus asks also holding his head.

"About 10 minutes." She replies calmly.

Garrus and I share a look before turning back to her.

"Uh, Hi?"

"What's up?" She says cheerily.

Garrus and I are a little put off by the bright and cheery Tali so casually bursting in.

"Uh we're working on the Mako, what's got you so cheery?"

"Me? Well Shepard gave me some Geth data to take as a Pilgrimage gift."

"Ah that explains it, so you'll be heading back to the fleet as soon as this is over with?" I ask returning to work.

"Yeah, what will you two do?" She asks.

"I'll probably head back to C-sec although that's not a very appealing plan." Garrus replies.

"I actually don't know what I'm going to do, maybe I'll get a job in one of the weapons shops on the Citadel."

"You got a place to stay?" Garrus asks.

"No, I figure I'll rent an apartment or something." I reply with a shrug.

"You can come stay with me, I got a big apartment because of my father, but if we share rent we'll both have more money." He says calmly.

"Really?" I ask pausing to look at him.

"Yeah sure you're one of the few good friends I've made in the past… I don't even know how long…" he says stopping to look me in the eye.

"You too Tali." He quickly amends, before she can get on his case.

"Well… thanks, that makes things a bit easier on me." I reply honestly.

"Heh, you'll be doing me a favor, that damn apartment is so large, it'll be good to actually use some of the empty rooms."

"_I guess I should tell him then… Tali can back me up, and we won't be eavesdropped on under the Mako, I'll send a message to Shepard first." _I think to myself.

I open my Omni tool and write a message.

Hey boss, I think I'm going to tell Garrus about Me. send.

He responds quickly. Are you sure?

Yeah, he just invited me to live with him after this mess, so I kind of feel obligated you know?

Fair enough, but do you need me to come back you up, or should I tell Chakwas to ready you a bed?

Very funny, no Tali is here, she can back me up.

Ok good luck.

I look over to Tali who has been chatting with Garrus while he works.

"Garrus, there's something I need to tell you now that I really know you." He looks at me with a slight look of confusion, Tali gives me a questioning look as well. I nod to Tali.

"Yeah, ok Jon what is it?"

"I'm not from this universe." I say trying to sound completely serious.

"Wha-… what do you mean that's not possible." He says with a slight uneasy laugh like he thinks I've gone insane.

"That's not even the craziest thing, the universe I came from is around 173 years younger, and all of this that's happening with the Reapers, and Saren, all of it was a video game."

"Is this a joke? Because it's not funny Jon." He replies a little bit angry.

"I wouldn't lie to you, it's true, don't ask me how or why, but it is."

"He's not lying Garrus." Tali says quietly.

"You believe him?" He asks incredulously.

"He told me a while ago, he knew things about me that no one else should know." She replies dead serious.

"Dr. Saleon, he was using people as living test tubes to grow organs to sell on the black market, but he got away, and now he's under the alias Dr. Heart, and you want to ask Shepard to go after him, am I right?"

He just looks at me thinking hard on what I said. "But… you… you knew what was going to happen to Ash, and you didn't try to stop it."

"In the Game either Ash or Kaidan _Died, _I told Shepard before we went to Virmire, so it wouldn't happen."

"But couldn't you tell Shepard exactly what's going to happen then? So we can be ready and-"

"Shep and I talked about that, the game isn't infallible, things are different here, because I'm here and because it's not a game. I'm not going to wear the plot like armor, all I can do is say what happened in the game and we can make a best guess from that."

"Hmm so who have you told? I'm not the last one am I?"

I chuckle. "No, so far it's just you, Tali, and Shepard."

"Mm, that's a lot to take right there."

"Yeah, imagine having it happen to you."

"I think a Turian would stick out a bit more, especially Garrus." Tali says sarcastically.

I start cracking up while Garrus shoots her a glare. I manage to calm myself after a few moments.

"Heh, I make due, of course knowing what was going to happen I couldn't just sit around, so I prepared, studied up on weapons, working out, and training, then did what I could to get in with Shepard."

"Well it worked, but you couldn't master something like gunsmithing in a few months, and you are really good at it."

"That's in with the parts that confuse me, the only explanation I've received for it is in dreams, so I'm not too trusting of it, but apparently part of the reason I was chosen to come here is because I'm 'resonant' with advanced technology."

"What does that mean?"

"I don't fully know, but it's given me a massive learning curve for picking up tech skills, and it's what allows me to use broken machinery. Remember on Therum when we were in Liara's cell but we couldn't figure out the controls?"

"Yeah, you went over to the console, yelped in pain, and then it released her."

"Exactly, it's happened a few times with tech that wouldn't respond, when I go to touch it, I get shocked and then it works."

"Why does it shock you, shouldn't something like that just happen, I mean Biotics don't hurt the user, and this resonance seems a lot like a tech version of Biotics."

LIGHTBULB

"He's right, she said many people are resonant with different things, I wonder if powerful Biotics are people who are resonant with Biotics."

"She?" Tali and Garrus both ask.

"The person who tells me about this stuff in my dreams." I say waving my hand. "Not important right now."

"Uh ok, but that still doesn't explain why it shocks you."

"Well she said she didn't know why either, just that it was some kind of synthesis error."

"Synthesis error? I get those sometimes when I'm working on a big gun like the Normandy's weapons, a synthesis error for that means that something isn't translating right, like power isn't being routed through the proper converters or something."

"For a biotic would that be like their amps or eezo nodes?" Tali adds in.

Garrus and I look to her to elaborate.

"Their power converter, the nodes convert electrical impulses from the brain into Biotics. A biotic without an amp or node has only the bare minimum control over their Biotics, do you think that's because they're missing their converter?"

"That's a good point, so Jon is missing a converter. But what kind of converter would he need?" Garrus asks.

"I don't know, something to convert impulses from his brain into technical code that a computer could read." Tali replies.

"Does something like that even exist?" I ask.

"Not that I know of." Garrus replies.

Tali just shakes her head.

"Well, enlightening none the less, I'd be lost without you guys." I say sincerely.

"Don't go soft on me now Jon." Garrus replies, I just punch him in the shoulder.

"Hehe, you should probably go talk to Shepard He'll want to know what we figured out." Tali says.

"I was just thinking that, so I'll see you guys later." Garrus just grunts in reply as Tali and I crawl out from under the Mako. I give Tali a casual two finger salute as goodbye as I head over to the elevator.

* * *

><p>"So you think you're missing some kind of component, and that's why your abilities aren't working quite right?"<p>

"Yeah, we aren't certain on how this works, it's all just speculation, but it's the best thought we've come up with so far."

I've brought Shepard up to speed with everything that we think we know in his quarters on the mid-deck of the Normandy.

"Hmm I guess we'll just have to keep our eyes open for anything like that."

"It's not important right now, we have bigger fish to fry."

"Indeed, when we dock at the Citadel, I'll take Kaidan and Wrex to talk with the council, I want you to Take everyone else and use all our funds to purchase some extra fire power, I'll make a list of somethings you should get, but I'll leave the rest of it to your discretion."

"Sounds good." I try to think of Ilos and the battle for the Citadel and what we might need.

"Demo charges, and more shoulder fired rockets."

"If we buy materials how much do you think you could make before we reach Ilos?" Shepard asks.

"It's what 11 hours or so from the Citadel till' drop? I should be able to throw together another launcher and plenty of rockets, with the two launchers we already have, and I've got about 12 rockets ready to go that should be plenty."

"Have Tali help you, the engines will survive the trip without her."

"Aye aye Boss."

After speaking with Shepard I quickly recruit Tali and we start preparing, making as much as we can with what we already have before we reach the Citadel. Sure enough Shepard sends me a list of things to get, including ammo belts, grenades, ammo mods, stim canteens, medi-gel, bandages, and then at the bottom it says 'explosives… lots of em'.

As we approach the Citadel I round everyone up Me, Tali, Garrus, and Liara all head off for the market. Shepard takes Kaidan and Wrex up to the council chambers, and Chakwas takes Ash to an actual hospital.

The shopkeepers in the market seem a bit worried about the amount of supplies we're buying and I have to keep reassuring them that we are in fact Shepard's crew, but we get everything we need and more and then start heading back to the Normandy.

Ping

"Hello?"

"Jon, it's Shepard, we just finished talking to the council."

"And?"

"The Normandy is locked down, and the council is just going to sit here."

"I could deal with them not doing anything, I don't really expect them to, it's when they're actively trying to screw themselves over that it bugs me."

"Heh,exactly, anyway we're heading over to Flux to talk to Anderson, did you get everything?"

"Everything and more, I think the shop vendors are afraid we're staging a coup, but we're almost back to the Normandy."

"Alright we'll meet you there."

"Aye, aye bossman"

We get back to the Normandy and begin unloading all the gear we bought. It's not long later that Shepard returns… minus one Wrex.

"Where's Wrex?" I ask.

"He got held up by C-sec, for yelling at the council."

"Well there will be plenty of action on the Citadel pretty soon." I say quietly.

"Yeah, is everything ready?"

"Yup, we got everything down in the cargo bay ready to go."

"Alright good, I'm going to go wait in the cockpit with Joker, Anderson is going to override the command from Udina's office."

"Alright I'll get to work down in cargo."

I head down and get to work, Tali comes over pretty soon after and she brought food.

"You're the best Tali."

She giggles. "Just making sure you're at full strength. Big fight coming up."

"Yeah, alright we've got work to do."

* * *

><p>The next 11 hours are a mess of frantic preparation, Tali and I making ordinance, Garrus going over the Mako, Kaidan gets some of the extra gear ready. Shepard and Liara disappeared for about an hour, can't imagine what they we're up too…<p>

Shepard comes down an hour before drop, and gathers everyone around.

"Alright everyone, this is it. We're going down there, and we're getting Saren." He stands up perfectly straight. "Of that I have no doubt, you are some of the best I have ever worked with, and I'm sure we'll all get dragged into some other charade after this… I look forward to it." He says cracking a crazy grin at the end. "Alright gear up we're almost there."

Most people walk over to the lockers to get their armor on.

"At the very least this is the most _interesting _crew I've worked with." Shepard says.

Everyone gets a laugh from that. From there it's armor on, weapons ready. Shepard, Kaidan, and Liara head up to the cockpit when Joker radios in that we've entered the system.

I finish loading all the pouches on my armor with thermal clips, re-check my weapons for the nth time, before just settling down. This is it the final fight of ME1. Heh, I wonder what everyone back home would think of this? I'm about to drop onto an alien plant to face off against an indoctrinated Specter, an army of Geth, and a Reaper. Well first off I would have to explain to them what all of that is. Then they would do … something, I dunno. I let out a soft chuckle.

"Something funny?" Tali asks sitting down next to me.

"Trying to imagine what my family would think of this."

"And?"

"I have no idea, there's no precedent for something like this!"

"Hehe, my father would either be proud that I'm doing the right thing, scolding me for doing something foolish, or be absolutely furious we just stole a ship."

That makes me laugh, a real laugh. After a minute Tali starts laughing too.

"You two aren't losing it on me are you?" Garrus says from his seat a few feet away.

We both stop and look at him.

…

"Pffft"

And then everyone is laughing, we manage to pull ourselves together after a few minutes.

"I think we're all going insane." Garrus says still trying to catch his breath.

"You're probably right." I reply. "You gotta be a little messed up to do this, or at least no _sane _person would."

"Normal is boring!" Tali pipes up with my motto.

I put my fist in the air. "To crazy adventures!"

Garrus puts his fist up. "To crazy friends!"

Tali puts her fist up. "To a crazy long rest after this!"

A few minutes later the squad comes back down.

"Alright everybody in the Mako." Shepard says.

I put my helmet on, grab my Widow and pile into the back of the Mako.

Here we go, onto the end of the Beginning.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Well there you go next chapter will be Ilos, I'm not sure if the next part will be one long chapter that covers Ilos and the Citadel, or if each will be their own chapter we'll see how it turns out. Nearing the end of ME1, I'm excited to get into the interim and then ME2, so I'll see you next chapter.**

**P.S. I think spell check is actively trying to make me sound stupid.**

**-Knight out**


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: Well what's that? About two weeks? That seems a pretty good standard; I'll try to keep to putting out a chapter every two weeks at least. But here we are Ilos and the battle of the Citadel, this is not the final chapter, there will be one more after this. Then book two will begin after I go back and edit the first few chapters of this one.**

**Warning: ****The end of this chapter has a few scenes that are quite gory, so you have been warned.**

**I am almost to 50 reviews! That's like elevendy seven times more than I thought this would ever get you guys are the best!**

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 16: The End of the Beginning<span>

Door.

…

"Do we have enough ordinance to get through that?" Kaidan asks, staring at the massive door Saren just escaped through.

"Probably." I reply hand on my chin an action that is somewhat difficult while wearing a helmet… "What the hell, lets blow it up, Garrus give me a hand here?"

"Yeah, how much do you think we'll need?"

"Dunno, let's just put on a bunch and see what happens."

"You do know what you're doing right?" Kaidan asks skeptically.

"He knows his explosives, come on we have to hold off the Geth." Shepard says.

"Whatever you say Commander." Kaidan says slowly walking away.

Shepard walks over to me, he just stands next to me arms crossed looking at the door. "Knock hard"

I smirk under my helmet. "Aye aye boss."

"I'll give em' wiff of me own Scottish brimstone!" I shout to no one in particular with a Scottish accent.

Garrus just looks at me weird for a second, but then he just shakes his head and pulls out a duffle bag full of demo charges.

"So uh how should we do this?" Garrus asks holding a charge.

"I figure we stick a bunch on here in an arc big enough for the Mako to get through, and see what happens."

He shrugs and starts putting charges on the door.

-POV Shepard-

"How many of these guys are there?" Tom shouts from his position a few yards up behind a collapsed pillar.

"A lot just keep firing." I shout back.

"Armature! Use a rocket!"

Tali pops up from behind cover, bringing the RPG to bear in one fluid motion.

SHOOONK!

The armature takes the rocket right in the chest, it staggers and collapses, smoking to the ground.

"What's that four now?" Tali asks reloading the launcher.

"Five" Kaidan replies. "Good thing we stocked up."

I see a Geth prime come out from around a corner.

Screw that.

SHOOONK!

"Nice shot Shepard!" Tom shouts enthusiastically.

Then Jon and Garrus run out and duck behind cover.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!" Jon shouts before slamming a button on his Omni tool.

- POV Knight-

BOOOOOOOM!

A massive explosion rocks the area, and I can hear chunks of debris impacting the Mako with metallic THUNKs. I look back around the barrier. Whoa hole, right in the door there is a perfect hole blasted through the door where Garrus and I placed the charges, a hole the Mako _should _fit through.

"Did it work?" Shepard shouts over his shoulder still engaging the Geth.

"Yeah, we should be able to get through, but damn that door is tough." I reply with some awe.

"Alright, we need to go." He says motioning to the abundant Geth in the area.

Strange I don't recall this many from the game.

"Let's leave em' a present and run." He turns to me with a smirk.

"Everyone fall back!" Shepard shouts to the rest of the squad.

As people move back through the gap, Garrus and I drop several demo charges. We then quickly jump into the Mako and Shepard guns the engine. He then charges the Mako forward through the barely large enough hole we made, there is the telltale sound of rending metal, and outside light suddenly illuminates the interior of the Mako.

"What happened?" Shepard shouts from the cockpit.

"We lost the turret!" I reply.

The Mako's entire turret is simply gone, and the elevated gunner's position now opens to the top of the Mako. I climb up into the gunner's position, the top half of my body outside the Mako.

"So now we have no way to defend ourselves?" Kaidan asks rhetorically.

"I wouldn't say that." I return calmly, shouldering the RPG.

"Geth up ahead." Shepard says.

I aim down the sights of the launcher aiming for the middle of the cluster.

"_Steady… steady… NOW!"_

SHOOONK!

The rocket flies slightly to the right of where I was aiming but succeeds in clearing the Geth from our path. Shepard keeps driving the Mako forward, we don't encounter any more Geth before we reach the force field.

"I don't like the look of this Commander." Garrus says as we step out of the Mako.

"Shepard cues his radio. "Jon?"

I bring my hand up to my radio. "Nah, this should be here, take the elevator over there."

He nods. "Tali, liara, Kaidan, you're with me. Knight, Garrus, Tom, stay with the Mako."

"Aye aye boss."

With that Shepard and his group get into the elevator and head down. I take a few moments to check over my equipment. Tom gets back in the Mako and comes out the gunner's seat a moment later. He sets the bipod for his Revenant down facing back down the tunnel.

I take a deep breath looking down the tunnel as well, this place feels ominous, heavy, like we're disturbing a graveyard. And essentially we are the final resting place of the last living members of the Prothean race. It's a strange feeling.

"What are all these things on the walls?" Garrus asks quietly.

"Stasis pods of some sort."

"Since no one came out to greet us I'll assume they're empty."

"50,000 years is a long time to be in stasis."

"Can't outlive em', can't hide from em', can't fight em'… how are we supposed to defeat them?" Garrus looks to me mandibles drooping slightly at the insurmountable odds stacked against us.

"We try, it's all we can do, we give it our all, and put our trust in Shepard." I say shrugging.

"And what if that's not enough?"

"Then we die fighting, with the reapers, it's as simple as that." I reply quietly. "But I'm sure we can beat them, nothing is invincible, nothing lasts forever, we'll find away, life always has."

"I wish I had your optimism Jon." He replies shaking his head.

"I don't like being sad, doesn't fit with my unique personality." I say putting a hand on my chest and bowing a little.

"Oh, you're unique alright." He replies sarcastically.

"Hey I take pride in m-"

"Hey guys! We got something coming." Tom suddenly bursts in from his position in the Mako.

Garrus and I instantly move into cover on the walls and pull out snipers. I crouch down and put the scope up to my eye. Sure enough I see several Geth troopers coming up over the rise.

"Ready when you are Jon." Garrus says over the radio.

"Light em' up."

We each fire our rifle at the same time, and two Geth simultaneously become a head shorter. The rest of them quickly scramble for cover and start returning fire, but it quickly becomes apparent who has the advantage, while Garrus and I peg any Geth that sticks out of cover, Tom is firing his Revenant relentlessly, pinning them down. It just becomes a waiting game for Garrus and I to get them all, it takes a little more than five minutes before all of the Geth are eliminated.

"Nice shooting." I say walking back over to the Mako.

"You too, and good covering fire Tom."

"Thanks, you two are scary good." He replies while shoveling a not inconsiderate pile of used thermal clips off the top of the Mako, where they land in the shallow water hissing.

Just about then the kinetic barrier barring the path shuts off, and a few moments later the elevator arrives with Shepard and CO.

"Saddle up, we've gotta move." Shepard says quickly striding over to the Mako.

Everyone piles into the Mako, and Shepard takes off down the tunnel. I quickly buckle myself into the seat, so I don't get thrown about like a ragdoll. We take a sharp turn and I can feel the G force pulling me to the side, then the tires grip and we go flying forward again. There's no way to see out of the Mako from in the back, and I'm really wishing there was right now. The Mako suddenly rocks to the side and the world tilts at a 45 degree angle, then we slam back down. You know what I take that back I don't want to know what's going on outside. It doesn't take long for us to reach our destination.

"There is the Conduit!" Kaidan points out from the passenger's seat.

The Mako leaps forward and we pick up speed flying down a slope, I can hear rounds pinging off the shields and the characteristic thump of siege pulses landing all around us.

Then WHAM.

* * *

><p>There's not really any travel time during an FTL jump, just a sudden feeling of weightlessness and then an abrupt stop. It's the same in the Mako but then we crash onto the Citadel, the Mako was not made for FTL travel after all.<p>

I gingerly climb out of the Mako's belly hatch, and jump to the ground next to Shepard and Kaidan. The Citadel is a mess, fires burning everywhere, bodies strewn about, and the distant sound of gunfire. It's horrible.

"You ok Jon?" Shepard asks.

"Yeah, I'll be fine, bit of a rough landing."

Everyone else climbs out of the Mako, and just as we're about to move out the radio crackles to life.

"Shepard is that you?"

"Wrex?" Shepard asks activating his mic.

"HAHA, I knew you wouldn't miss all the fun." Yeah that's Wrex all right.

"Where are you Wrex? What's the situation?"

"I'm at the C-sec academy with a bunch of officers and some civies, we're trying to hold off the Geth, but it's rough Shepard."

"Tom, do you know how to get to the academy from here?"

"Of course." He puts his hand up to his mic. "I'm on my way Wrex." He starts to jog off but I stop him.

"It's not safe to go alone, take this." I say handing him my RPG and a satchel of rockets.

He slings the launcher and ammo over his shoulder. "Thanks Jon, stay safe."

"You too" I quickly jog back over to Shepard.

Garrus is on top of the upside down Mako taking things from someone inside, he tosses me an ammo belt. I catch it and unclip the nearly empty one I had on and replace it with the full one. Then he tosses me a canteen, I almost don't catch it but after an impromptu juggling round I get a hold of it. I take my helmet off and take a long pull from the canteen.

The canteens we bought are full of a revitalizing drink meant for long battle engagements, similar to a stim, but it's not as quick, and also has less of a crash afterwards. I cap the canteen and put my helmet back on, and grab a few more supplies.

"Everyone ready?" Shepard asks.

We all give an affirmative.

"Alright lets go."

We move off and pile into the elevator for the council chambers. It goes about halfway up and then stops.

"Helmets on everyone." Shep says pulling out his pistol.

I double check the seals on my helmet, all good. Shepard pulls the trigger, and the glass shatters soundlessly, the vacuum of space eliminating sound. We step out onto the side of the tower, held to the ground via magnetic boots, but the rest of my body strangely weightless. I grip my Widow a bit tighter and follow Shepard down the corridor, the sound of my breathing overtly loud in my helmet.

The first firefight is strange, trying to put the crosshairs on the target is strange when you're 40kg gun is suddenly weightless. I don't mess around trying to get a headshot, and just try to hit the enemies. I get the hang of it after a short time, Garrus seems to be faring better his impeccable accuracy not wavering for a second. Although he's probably trained in zero-G before.

The corridor fights are over quickly, where there are only a few Geth, our squad of six people cuts them down quickly, having two Biotics is very helpful as well. The larger firefights however are a bit more challenging, there are _a lot _of Geth here, and Kaidan, and Liara's Biotics are somewhat less effective at long range.

We continue pressing up the tower, against an army of Geth. We're most of the way up the tower when a drop ship shows up. Everyone gets into cover and starts engaging the Geth pouring out of the ship.

"We need to hack these defense turrets!" Shepard says over the radio.

Tali starts hacking the closest turret, so I set my sights on one a bit farther away. "Cover me!"

I sprint out into the open running for the cover of the turrets mount. Running through a battlefield with no sound is extremely disconcerting, I can feel the heat from a few rounds, and I can see some whipping past me, but I can't hear anything, it's just strange.

I get to the turret after what seems like an eternity, taking a moment to catch my breath before getting to work on the turret, it has next to no security, I guess no one ever expected someone to walk up the side of the tower to hack them, makes my job easier though.

The panel flashes green and the turret begins firing. "I got it!"

"LOOK OUT!" Someone shouts over the radio.

Wha- OH SHIT ROCKET! I dive to the side, a sound battle instinct, but I'm in zero-G so I now find myself floating away. The rocket flies past me and explodes a few feet behind me, floating as I am, I am smashed into the turret mount from the force of the rockets explosion. My right shoulder takes the brunt of the impact, and I can feel the overlapping armor plates on my shoulder bending out of shape as my shoulder erupts with pain, but then I bounce off the turret back into the air, broken bits of armor trailing in my wake.

"JON!" I hear Tali shout over the radio.

"Liara, grab him!" Shepard orders quickly.

I feel a strange sensation envelope my body, and I start drifting back towards the tower surface. My boots connect with a dull thunk, and Liara releases her Biotics. The drop ship and Geth are gone, so I take a moment to assess the damage, the armor appears to have taken the brunt of the damage, the three overlapping pieces of armor that protect my shoulder have shattered or come loose.

Tali is the first to make it to me. "Jon, are you alright? That looked bad, are you ok" She continues to worriedly assail me with questions, before I garb her by the shoulders, and hold her still.

"Tali, I'm alright." I keep looking straight into her faceplate. She nods after a second.

"Sorry, I just, that looked, I was worried…" She says wringing her hands, and dropping her gaze to the ground.

"It's alright, it's nice to be worried over."

Shepard and the others have gotten over to us by this point.

"You're ok?" Shepard asks.

I roll my shoulder experimentally… OW! I rub my injured shoulder through the armor.

"It hurts like hell, but nothings broken." I reply.

"Can you shoot?"

"I'll stick with my pistol for now." I say pulling said weapon from its holster.

"Alright let's keep moving."

My shoulder feels like it's on fire, an application of medi-gel helps keep it bearable, but I'm not going to be firing the Widow any time soon. But then this is it isn't it? We arrive at the council chambers and make our way inside through a maintenance airlock. The council chambers are a mess, dead bodies, burning debris, and bullet holes litter the once beautiful area.

There are about six Geth with Saren, four troopers, and two snipers. They engage us as we approach. I slide into cover behind a planter, and wait a few moments then pop out and fire a few rounds from my Phalanx. Each shot sends a jolt of pain through my shoulder, but I just grit my teeth and keep firing. The few Geth there, are no match for us, and Saren growls angrily at their weakness.

Shepard moves up the stairs but quickly jumps away when Saren throws a grenade. Shepard and Saren begin their conversation, but I don't hear much of it because I'm nursing my shoulder. Damn this hurts.

BANG

I look up to see Saren slip sideways of his hover thing, and fall through the glass into the garden below. I get up and make my way towards Shepard. He goes to the open control panel and puts Vigil's program into the Citadel's mainframe. The ground shakes as the arms begin opening.

"Anyone this is the Destiny Ascension! We are under heavy fire, the council is onboard!"

"Shepard, we got that SOS, I'm sitting here with the entire Arcturus fleet just open the relays and we'll swoop in." Jokers voice comes over the com.

He doesn't even hesitate. "Relays are open Joker."

"Roger that Commander."

He steps back and looks out the window. "Make sure he's dead."

I jump down into the garden pit with Garrus. I walk over to where Saren's body is and pull out a demo charge.

"Is that necessary?" Garrus asks from behind me.

I turn and look at him. "Yeah" I reply dead serious.

He nods. I turn back to Saren, he starts glowing red. _"Oh shit!"_

Soverighn's takeover of Sarens body is much quicker in real life, there is no exaggerated transformation, the flesh dissolves in a red glow, and he lets out a burst of energy that knocks me off my feet, and collapses the platform Shepard, and the rest of the squad were standing on.

I start getting back to my feet, but Soverighn is right on me. I dive away narrowly avoiding being shiskebabed, but I don't avoid the grab. He clamps a talon around my right bicep and pulls me off my feet. He swings me around in a circle, and brings me around in an upswing, supposedly to smash me onto the ground but he doesn't get the chance.

My shoulder screams in pain, but everything is going in slow motion, as he swings me up through the air I watch with morbid fascination as the weakened shoulder armor comes apart, followed by a wet ripping sound, like tearing a wet cloth, then a final sickening wet pop, and I'm flying through the air up and out of the garden pit. I hit the ground and slide into a pillar.

I can see a red trail following along the ground where I slid, that's not good. I look to my right shoulder, my entire right arm was ripped out at the socket, red tatters of flesh hang limply, and a steady flow of crimson blood pours out, that is not good. I rip off my helmet with my remaining hand, and apply medi-gel. This isn't working, the wound is too serious, I need something else. I begin frantically looking around, but all that's close by is one of the dead Geth snipers.

Maybe I'm too crazy for my own good, but I've got no better ideas. Let's do this.

-POV Shepard-

Damnit! I watch helplessly as Jon's arm is ripped off and he goes flying out of the pit. Soverighn, flings the arm away in distaste, and focuses his attention on me.

"You're gunna pay for that asshole!" I charge forward firing my assault rifle.

-POV Knight-

I've finished relieving the Geth of it's right arm, using the knife in my left hand was extremely difficult, and cutting through the Geth's thick tissue took much longer than I would have liked, the medi-gel is probably the only reason I haven't bled out already. I pick up the Geths arm and bring it towards my shoulder, as it comes in contact electricity arcs from me to the arm, my next thoughts are completely blocked out by the wave of pain. I double over, and shut my eyes, I don't know how long it lasts, it feels like an eternity before I'm swallowed by darkness.

…

I wake up floating in darkness. _"Where am I? what happened, I… I can't remember…"_

A form emerges from the dark a featureless body clad in dark armor, it has blue code flowing across it and around it, but its entire right shoulder and chest have broken pieces of code, glowing an angry red. I move towards it and start fixing the broken code. I don't rightly know what I'm doing, it's more like I feel what to do. As sections of code align they return to their icy blue color, and as more is repaired I begin to remember. The final piece of code aligns, and I remember, the head of the figures snaps up to look me right in the face, two ice blue circular eyes, a cackling jack-o-lantern mouth, crossed by three parallel scars.

My eyes fly open and I jolt up into a sitting position, I grimace in pain from the sudden movement and grip my right shoulder… waitaminute. I look over to my right shoulder and find that the Geth arm is fused into the previously empty socket. At this point I determine I'm not in immediate danger of dying and look around, large pieces of black metal are embedded into the chamber, preventing me from seeing more than ten feet in any direction. I'm stuck in a small clearing, so I decide that moving can come later after I've better assessed my injuries. I pull off the top of my armor to better examine my shoulder, strips of synthetic 'flesh' trace from the wound out to the middle of my chest, the skin is red and irritated wherever it connects to its synthetic counterpart.

I flex my right hand experimentally, the Geth arm responds exactly as my flesh and blood one did, but causes me to grit my teeth in pain. Too soon to be moving that, but it does move, I have successfully incorporated a synthetic arm into my body… Tali is gunna freak. That thought makes me laugh, I pull a roll of bandage out of a pocket in my armor and begin wrapping my shoulder in it.

After that is finished I lean back against the pillar and just breathe for a few minutes. That was way to close, I could have died right there, I suppose the only reason I didn't is because I'm resonant with tech, this wouldn't have worked if I wasn't would it? I ponder this a few moments, gently flexing my new hand. No it probably wouldn't have. I'm a goddamn lucky bastard.

* * *

><p>I should probably get moving, make sure everyone is alright. I slowly get to my feet, it doesn't hurt to move my arm so much anymore. I put my shirt back on and grab my helmet and the remnants of my chest piece, then I start climbing over pieces of debris towards where the garden pit was. The going is slow as my adrenaline starts to wear off, and I begin to realize just how drained I really am. I stop and lean up against a piece of metal to catch my breath.<p>

"Jon?" I look up to see Shepard halfway over a piece of debris.

"Shepard, hah, oh it's good to see you." I say walking over to him and helping him over the obstacle.

"That's new." He says pointing to my arm.

"Desperate times, call for desperate measures I suppose, I would have bled out I it hadn't worked." I say lifting my arm and flexing my hand.

"I don't suppose you have a logical explanation for that?"

"Uh, no, not a logical one."

"Then we should cover it up, don't want your secret getting out."

"Yeah, I guess I hadn't thought about that."

We fashion a sling of sorts out of bandage and pieces of my undershirt that conceals my new arm. I can explain what happened to the squad later, but this should hide it for now.

"I, I would ask more but I'm too tired right now, let's just get out of here." He says slowly moving over to the next pile of debris blocking our path.

"You're the boss." I reply following after him.

We meet up with the rest of the squad, a short while later. Everyone has new scars but nothing serious, besides me. C-sec officers are there with medics, but as no-one has life threatening injuries, Shepard waves them off to help civilians. He gets a C-sec shuttle to take us back to the Normandy. When we get back Chakwas immediately corrals everyone to the med-bay. Of course she immediately picks up that I have the most severe injury.

"What happened Jon?" She asks concern edging into her voice.

"Uh, big nasty thing grabbed me and tossed me around a bit, but it's nothing to worry about."

"I think I'll be the judge of that, now let me-"

"Doctor, his arm will be alright, trust me." Shepard says looking Chakwas in the eye.

She turns back to me and gives me a curious look. I smile sheepishly, she leaves to attend someone else, but that's not the end of that. I look to Shepard and give him a look that says, 'thanks for pulling my ass out of the fire', he returns with a nod and a smile. I have several other injuries of course but it's just the usual bumps, scrapes, and bruises. Everyone else turned out much the same, although shepard's forearm had a small fracture, and Tali had a small suit puncture, nothing life threatening.

I leave the med-bay some time later, and get some food. After that I begin heading down to my room for some sleep, glorious sleep. When I enter the room Garrus is just getting in bed as well. I give him a tired smile.

"We did it"

"That we did, now I'm going to pass out for a while." And he does he's asleep the moment his head hits the pillow.

I do the same thing after climbing up into my bunk.

I wake up about ten hours later, getting out of bed is painful, my entire body rebels at the idea of movement, but my stomach is growling so I slowly make my way down to the mess hall. Garrus is slumped on the table, apparently asleep. Tali is holding her head in her hands barely awake, and Shepard is nursing a cup of coffee. Tali and Shep both look up as I come in, Shepard gives me a tired smile, and I can tell Tali is doing the same. I grab some food from the vendatron, and sit next to Tali across from Garrus and Shep.

"Morning" I say opening my package.

"Morning? It's almost noon." Tali replies.

"mehr, close enough."

Shepard and Tali chuckle at my wisecrack.

"When you're done we should all have a talk." Shepard says more seriously.

I stop in my attempt to open the package one handed. "Yeah, probably should, your quarters?"

Tali snatches my food opens it and hands it back. "Thanks"

"Yeah, my quarters will be private enough."

I dig into my food, slower than I would have liked still only using my left hand. "So how are you guys feeling?"

"I'm a little sick, but not too bad." Tali replies with a sniffle.

"Sore" Is all Shepard replies.

I eat for a while. "How's Liara?"

"She's alright, still sleeping in her room." Shepard replies.

"Kaidan?"

"Same, Ash is still at the hospital on the Citadel, Tom is sleeping at a C-sec aid station, and Wrex is helping with relief efforts." Shep says taking a swig of his coffee.

I nod, well then everyone made it out ok. Small miracle that, I finish eating the rest of my food in comfortable silence. I toss my stuff in the trash.

"Alright, I'm ready, shall we wake sleeping beauty?"

"I got him" Shepard says. He nudges Garrus. "Come on wake up buddy."

"Nehyfihsdfjk…" Garrus mumbles incoherently.

Shepard shakes him a little harder. "Garrus"

He suddenly sits bolt upright. "I'M AWAKE! Whoa" He topples over backwards in his chair.

Shepard helps him up while Tali and I try to suppress our laughter. He glares at us once he gets back on his feet.

"Come on sunshine, we've got stuff to talk about." Shepard says patting him on the shoulder.

We head to Shepard's quarters, Tali and I sit down on the couch, Garrus sits backwards on the desk chair, resting his arms on the back, and Shepard sits down on his bed.

"Ok, so Jon, show them your arm?" Shepard says.

I nod, and start pulling the sling off, as I begin unraveling the bandages Garrus speaks up.

"I'm certain I saw your arm disconnect when Saren grabbed you."

"Yeah, me too." Tali says softly.

"Well that's because it did." I say pulling away the last of the bandages.

They both gasp.

"Is that… a Geth arm?" Garrus asks incredulously.

"Yes"

"How,.. what? …" Tali stammers.

"I don't really know why I did it, but when I landed outside the garden pit, medi-gel wasn't enough to stop the bleeding, the only other thing around was a dead Geth sniper."

"So you just thought 'I'll take his arm?'" Garrus says mandibles splayed in disbelief.

"Pretty much, like I said, I don't really know what prompted me to do it, but I did and it worked." As I say this I raise my arm flexing my hand.

"It's fully functional?" Shepard asks.

"As far as I can tell, I'll have to get used to having three fingers, but it doesn't really feel any different."

"How can you feel it at all?" Tali says.

I just shrug. "It's weird, I don't 'feel' things like I do with my organic hand, but I can still tell I'm touching things, I can still 'feel' heat, cold, smooth, rough, ect…"

"So is this just something you jury rigged or is this a resonant thing?" Shepard asks.

"Definitely a resonant thing, attaching it I got shocked like when I interacted with tech but times a million."

"So you couldn't re-create this for someone else?" Shepard says.

"No, why-" My eyes widen. "Ash"

He nods.

"No, it's definitely on a much deeper level than simply being a prosthetic." I reply solemnly. "I wish I could help Ash, but I can't"

He nods. "Alright, well we're officially off combat operations for now, get some rest everyone, you've earned it."

"Aye, aye boss."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Well there you go, What'cha think?**

**-Knight out**


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: Well this is it the last chapter of Resonance Effect. Book two will be on the way shortly I'm going to edit the first six or so chapters of this first, don't want to scare off potential readers because I used to be a worse writer, minor fixes mostly, But the next book will be on the way. If I'm on your author alerts your good, but if you're just following the story you should check back in two or three weeks.**

**BTW I made it to fifty reviews!**

**Anonymous reviewers! I appreciate you taking your time to write a review, and I appreciate every single one, unfortunately I can't respond to them like a regular review, if you really want to talk about RE head over to my DeviantArt page I'd be happy to answer anything there.**

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 17: Fade to Black<span>

So, my new appendage stayed under wraps, both literally and figuratively. To hide it from anyone who couldn't be trusted I kept my right arm wrapped in bandages. I told Shepard he could tell Liara about me, all about me, if he wanted to. I think he is going to, from what he's told me she has pretty much guessed there's _something_ up with me. I don't really think Kaidan believes me either, we're friendly enough sure, but I think it's just in his nature to question especially since I'm not Alliance, he never did stop referring to me as a mercenary.

Wrex never confronted me about it, although I think it's simply because he's smart enough not to get involved, not that de doesn't think something's up. He trusts Shepard and Shepard told him not to ask about it, and that's all he needs. Which is nice, not that I have to worry about him anyway, he left for Tuchanka as soon as he could, he did say goodbye though. Sort of. It was more than I expected anyway.

Tali stuck around for the award ceremony. They held it on the Presidium about a week after the battle, you could still see a lot of damage, but things were on their way back to normal. The council, the Alliance, and the Turian Hierarchy all had leaders there to present medals. Everyone got a commendation from the council the highest medal that can be awarded by them outside the Specters. I got a medal from the Alliance as well, the highest honor that can be bestowed upon an associate of the Alliance. Garrus got a Turian medal, Shepard, Kaidan, and Ash got Alliance serviceman medals, the Medal of Honor, still called that even if it represents all of Earth and not just the USA. Liara got a medal from the Asari government. Shepard even made sure Tali and Wrex got the Citadel medal, even though Wrex wasn't around to receive it. Oh and Shepard got a gold sticky star of approval from the specters.

Tali left after that, we had a little party on the Normandy, just the squad and crew. She got a few gifts from the squad, turns out Wrex even left something with Shepard for her, a big freaking combat knife with 'this one's got a quad on her' scratched into the side. She got a kick out of that, strapped it to her boot, replacing the old one she had there. We promised to stay in touch, and I told her to tell me if she had something I could help with. I told her about what happened in ME2 with her father as well, but she pointed out that once you kill a Geth the program fries the hard drive and gets beamed back to the Geth collective. Reassembling the parts into a working platform wouldn't do anything, because there is no software, just hardware. That took a huge weight off my shoulders, so we chalked it up to dramatization by the developers. I told her to be careful anyway.

After the Citadel got sorted out Shepard got put back on active duty, hunting down the remnants of the Geth, Liara stayed with him, Garrus wanted to, but he got called back to C-sec. I would have but a higher up in the Alliance wanted to transfer my contract to a different ship, I turned it down so they canceled my contract. Go figure huh? But whatever. I got a job at a weapons shop on the Citadel, I didn't really need the cash, I had plenty from working on the Normandy, but I wanted something to do, and I used the extra money to completely redo my armor. It still had the same basic look as the old, but all the parts were upgraded, the material, the electronics, the shields, and of course it didn't have a right side. The armor for my right arm, which I didn't have to hide anymore I just called it a prosthetic, was just the plates that would normally have been attached to the 'sleeve' simply strapped onto my arm.

Living with Garrus was not really a big deal, we bunked together on the Normandy, which wasn't a big ship anyway, so we were used to living together. He was gone a lot with C-sec, even on the weekends sometimes, so I had a lot of time to 'investigate' my new appendage, modify it a little bit, and tinker around. I built in an Omni tool, it turned an icy blue instead of orange, which was cool, and all of the personalization settings automatically set to my own preferences, I figured this had to be because of my resonance. Only having three fingers was weird for a little while but really didn't much change anything, just made me think humans have extra fingers. Could even still play my guitar, right hand only has to hold the pick after all.

The few months after the battle of the Citadel, were really quite dull, Garrus and I would go out every now and again, Flux usually, not much one for clubs myself but flux wasn't so bad, they serve a mean burger there. We would kind of just hang around and talk, a lot like we did on the Normandy. Sometimes we just hung around the apartment though, play some videogames or whatever. Whenever Shepard got some shore leave, we would meet up with him, Kaidan, and Liara. Those we're some good times. But it couldn't last forever.

I tried to tell Shepard about the beginning of ME2 but, I think he kind of figured what would happen. He kept telling me that he didn't want to know the future, let alone the shakiness that I could predict it with. He made me promise not to tell Garrus or Liara either, so when it happened Garrus got mad at me, Liara took his death hard but didn't blame me or anything. I knew what was coming but… he's still gone, made me feel like I should have told him anyway, Garrus agreed with that. Liara however set us straight, 'Shepard knew that Jon could have told him, he already knew there were two years between the first and second games, he didn't want to know we should respect his decision.'

Liara disappeared before the funeral, I knew she went to get Shepard's body, I told Garrus as much, but Kaidan, and Ash got pretty mad at her. I met Shepard's parents as well, both Alliance, they were nice, Garrus and I talked to them for a while about working with Shepard. Met his sister too, he had mentioned her before, so I was interested to meet her. Amarantha Shepard, contrary to what I expected she was not the default femshep, she was several years younger than John and currently in N7 as an adept. She was about 5'9" or so, around my height, with black hair that she wore in a ponytail. Nice too, she was pretty broke up about John, but maintained herself well.

The night after the funeral was the first time I ever really drank. Garrus and I reserved ourselves, to mourn him together the way soldiers usually mourn for a fallen comrade, by drinking ourselves into a stupor. Of course for me that only took a few beers, he lasted a bit longer. I felt terrible in the morning, not half as bad as Garrus but still bad.

It was only another month and a half before Garrus couldn't take it anymore. He told me he was going to Omega, even asked if I wanted to come, I told him I needed to think about it. He was leaving though, told me to message him if I wanted to join him though, he would keep his current Omni tool around. He left the next morning, left enough credits for six months rent too.

I stuck around for another two months, I thought about Omega every evening, every weekend, any time I was off work. I knew he could use someone he could rely on, knew I wasn't doing anything productive sitting on my ass here. I finally made the decision though. Khalisah al-Jilani did a special about Shepard, questioning nearly all of his actions and outright diminishing him. I was just barely able to keep myself from hunting her down, but I realized that wouldn't help anything, the Citadel wanted Shepard and the threat of the Reapers gone, nothing I could do would stop it. So I decided to take up Garrus's offer, sent him a message. He sent me back a new number and told me to call that when I arrived on Omega.

So I packed up my things and left for Omega.

* * *

><p>And that's where I am now. I just stepped off the Shuttle, Omega, a stinking rotting cesspit of the damned. I had decided to wear my armor kept my Phalanx on me and stashed the rest of my guns in my bag. C-sec isn't so tight on outbound shuttles to Omega anyway, and the customs officer knew who I was and didn't think I would cause any trouble. I could have had my stuff get put into regular luggage, but didn't trust that anything I brought would get back to me after arriving on Omega.<p>

So I stood there at the Space port in full armor besides my helmet, Phalanx in my holster, with a backpack, and a duffle bag. I bring up my Omni tool and call Garrus.

"You're here?" I hear that familiar flanging voice.

"Yeah, just got off the Shuttle."

"Meet me at Afterlife, main floor, don't order any drinks."

I chuckle. "Yeah, I'll see you in a bit then."

I end the call and move off towards afterlife, It's just about right in front of the space port so it doesn't take long to get there, the bouncer doesn't give me any trouble getting in, probably figures I have business with one of the merc groups or something. Afterlife, the lair of the Queen of Omega, the place is dirty and reeks of booze and sweat. The music is pounding, and absolutely horrid, techno is fine in my book The Prodigy, Pendulum, they're good, but this isn't even music, rythmless random beats cranked up to max volume. I'm tempted to put my helmet on and block out the sound and smell, but figure that would look a bit strange, and I'm trying to stay inconspicuous. I take a seat at the bar and wave the bartender off when he comes up, a Batarian. Garrus shows up not to long after taking the seat next to me.

"Jon it's good to see you."

"Yeah, good to see you're still in one piece." I reply with a hint of sarcasm.

He chuckles. "Please Jon I can handle myself. It's been hell trying to get some quality weapons without you though."

I give him a wry grin. "Nice to know my talents are appreciated."

"Indeed, I could really use you here Jon, both for your skills as an armorer and as a sniper."

"Well that's why I came, got sick of all the bullshit on the Citadel, trying to sweep Shepard and the Reapers under the rug." I say scowling.

"Just makes you want to kill something eh?"

"Heh, exactly. They don't let me fire my Widow at the range on the Citadel, and I've just been itching for a chance to use her again."

"Well there's plenty of opportunity here, trust me." He gets up from his stool. "Come on then, you should me the rest of the squad."

I nod and get up following him outside to an empty car.

So here begins the next two years of my life, on the dirtiest, shit hole the galaxy has to offer. Better than the Citadel anyway, here you are a criminal, or you're just an unlucky bastard. We're going to give those unlucky bastards something to believe in. God I hope wherever Garrus's base is doesn't smell this bad though.

* * *

><p><strong>End of book one<strong>

**A/N: Well there we are, I'm excited to get to the next step in the Resonance Effect saga, I don't think it will be too long before chapter one of the next book is out, So I'll see you on the other side.**

**-Jknight out**


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